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COPXRIGHT DEPOSm 



In theTrack 
oithe Storm 




James H . Franklirv, 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 



9/r 




' Our Village " 



IN THE TRACK OF 
THE STOR 



A Report of a Visit to France and Belgium, with Observations 

Regarding the Needs and Possibilities of Religious Reconstruction 

in the Regions Devastated by the World War 



By 
JAMES H. FRANKLIN 

Foreign Secretary at 
The American Baptist Foreign Mission Society 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY 

PHILADELPHIA 
BOSTON CHICAGO ST. LOUIS NEW YORK 

LOS ANGELES KANSAS CITY SEATTLE TORONTO 



lie 3? 7 
•Ft 



Copyright, 1919, by 
GILBERT N. BRINK, Secretary 



Published September, 1919 



m -5 !9I9 



©CI.A585128 



FOREWORD 



In the spring of 1919 I visited France and Belgium, 
at the request of the Board of Managers of the 
American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, to ascer- 
tain, if possible, what should be done to assist the 
evangelical churches of those countries in their re^ 
construction work after the great war. From 
France and Belgium I wrote several letters to the 
Board of Managers, which I am now requested to 
release for publication. Often these letters were 
written late at night, when the brain was feverish, 
or on crowded railway trains, which fact, I trust, 
will serve as a sufficient excuse for any apparently 
hurried composition. 

Since these personal letters are to be published, 
it seems well to add portions of the more formal 
report of my visit to France and Belgium, and 
other related material. However, the small volume 
is intended as nothing more than a recital of a few 
personal observations and impressions. It is in no 
sense a handbook on any phase of reconstructive 
effort in the track of the storm. 

James H. Franklin. 
Boston, Mass. 



CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

I. First Days in France i 

II. A Journey into Devastated Areas . . 8 

III. A Great Protestant Meeting in Paris i8 

IV. In the Old Huguenot Country and 

Across to Alsace 21 

V. Religious Conditions in France, A 

Visit to the Bretons 36 

VI. To Brussels and Liege 48 

VII. Back Across the Path of the Hurri- 
cane 57 

VIII. The Extent of the Devastation 66 

IX. Glimpses of American Battle-fields 70 

X. America's Part in the War 90 

XI. Final Conferences in France 95 

XII. Homeward Bound with the Dough- 
boys 107 

XIII. Portions of the Formal Report to 

the Board of Managers 119 

XIV. Suggestions for Early Consideration 132 
XV. Loyalty to Evangelical Pioneers in 

France 138 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

" Our Village " Frontispiece 

The Silence of the Devastated Regions is Ap- 
palling 4 

Captured German Guns on the Place de la Con- 
corde, Paris 4 

The Village of Esnes, Back of Verdun 12 

The Cathedral at Chauny 12 

Back Home Once More 16 

A Ruined Section of Noyon 16 

Not Even the Cemeteries Were Spared 34 

In the City of Rheims 34 

In the Town of Chateau Thierry 62 

Where the Face of the Earth Has Been 

Changed 62 

The Town of Vaux 68 

A Common Sight 68 

An American Cemetery in France 76 

One of the Many Churches Now in Ruins!. ... 76 
French and Belgian Baptist Pastors and Lay- 
men, and Secretary Franklin 100 

The First Residence Reestablished at Lens . . . . 122 



IN THE TRACK OF 
THE STORM 



I 

First Days in France 

Hotel Continental, Paris, 
March 20, 1919. 

I reached Paris just three days ago, having ar- 
rived at Havre on the seventeenth instant, after an 
uneventful voyage across the Atlantic on the French 
steamship La Lorraine. 

Although actual hostilities have ceased and the 
completion of a treaty of peace is expected very 
soon, the hot breath of war is still felt over the 
land. One feels it in his face at any port of entry. 
On the dock at Havre, as our ship was being made 
fast, British soldiers passed whose smoked uniforms 
suggested the fires of battle, and whose tense faces 
seemed to express the strain of the conflict. An 
English hospital ship was starting across the Chan- 

[I] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 



nel on its usual errand. Another vessel, setting out 
for the Orient, had its lower decks crowded with 
Chinese coolies who had been laboring behind the 
lines and who clearly were rejoiced at being able 
to start homeward. Black men from French colonies 
in Africa were in evidence too. British troops were 
sailing home. American troops were returning 
from a " leave " spent in England. 

I was met at the ship by Rev. R. Du Barry, the 
Baptist pastor at Nimes, who accompanied me to 
Paris, where hotel accommodations had been re- 
served for me. Some of the passengers on La 
Lorraine without reservation drove in automobiles 
for three hours, after i.oo a. m., trying to find 
rooms. One reported to me that he finally gave it 
up and found shelter for the night with the Amer- 
ican Military Police. The congestion here at present 
causes the American Army to limit " leaves " for 
Paris to twelve thousand soldiers at a time, and for 
three days only. But to this number must be added 
the thousands of men in army departments with 
headquarters here, the hosts of workers in Y. M. 
C. A., Y. W. C. A., Red Cross, Salvation Army, 
Knights of Columbus, and other organizations — all 
in uniform. The hotels and principal thorough- 
fares are well colored with American khaki. The 
best-known hotels are filled largely with American 
army officers. 

On our five-hour journey from Havre to Paris, 
M. Du Barry and I found a very striking mixture of 



[2] 



FIRST DAYS IN FRANCE 



soldiers — English, French in their well-worn gray, 
Australians, Belgians, Americans, and I know not 
how many others — crowding the compartments and 
corridors of the very long train. It was my good 
fortune to have a seat in a compartment with five 
enlisted men and non-commissioned officers return- 
ing from a " leave " spent in England, who ap- 
peared to be glad for a chance to talk with some 
one just landed from America. If they enjoyed 
it, the satisfaction was mutual. For five hours our 
conversation ran swiftly from America to Chateau 
Thierry and the Argonne Forest; from good yarns 
and army gossip to morals, politics, and religion. 

The train was so crowded we could not possibly 
find places in the dining-car, and without bread- 
tickets not even a sandwich could be procured at 
Rouen where we stopped a few moments. Kit- 
bags were opened, and we made our supper on 
hard bread and harder chocolate. It was a great 
experience for me, and all of us seemed sorry at 
parting. As M. Du Barry and I pushed our way 
through the crowd at St. Lazare Station in Paris, 
he remarked, " With the soldiers of no other army 
in the world would such a conversation have been 
possible." That meant much from a man who has 
worn the French uniform. 

The American army officers seemed to be in pos- 
session of Hotel Continental when we arrived late 
in the evening. But I was struck immediately 
with what I saw on the servants there. The ele- 



[3] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

vator operator moved on a stiff leg, and when he 
turned to open the door I saw three decorations on 
his breast. Each of the two ushers in the reception- 
rooms showed an empty sleeve and at least two 
medals and ribbons. The porter at the door gave 
evidence that he had been cited twice for heroic 
action. In the Place de la Concorde, near my hotel, 
there is a forest of German cannon captured in 
battle. It is said here that when Premier Clemen- 
ceau was told that the children were climbing over 
the guns and the people were handHng them, he re- 
plied : " Let them take them away if they like ; we 
have plenty more." On every hand there is evidence 
of the great war. 

My first morning in Paris was given to a con- 
ference with Rev. A. Blocher and Rev. R. Du Barry, 
representing the Franco-Swiss Association. In the 
afternoon we journeyed to Colombes, a large suburb 
of Paris, where Rev. E. Raynaud is pastor of the 
Baptist church, the only evangelical organization in 
that section. The second day I called at the office 
of the " Paris Missionary Society," as it is known 
by us, which is the foreign mission organization of 
the Reformed (Presbyterian) Church, the largest 
Protestant body in France. This is the society 
whose associate director, Chaplain Daniel Couve, 
addressed you on February 13. Before the war it 
had one hundred and seventy-five missionaries in 
Lessouto (Rhodesia), Senegal, Tahiti, Zambezi, 
New Caledonia, and Madagascar, and since the 

[4] 












The Silence of the Devastated Regions is Appalling 




Captured German Guns on the Place de la Concorde, Paris 



FIRST DAYS IN FRANCE 



Germans were driven from the Cameroon country, 
West Africa, six missionaries have been sent to that 
section. But their losses have been so heavy that 
at present only one hundred and forty-three mis- 
sionaries are under appointment. At the same time 
they are carrying a heavy debt incurred during the 
war. The French Government has usually insisted 
that missionary effort in its colonies be conducted 
solely by French societies. If the Cameroon coun- 
try is made a French colony, a new obligation will 
rest on Christians in France to occupy the new 
territory. It is well known that German Baptists 
were doing a successful missionary work in the 
Cameroons before the war. When the English Bap- 
tist missionaries were expelled from that colony 
many of the native Christians proved to be staunch 
Baptists, which led to the development of larger 
interest on the part of Baptist churches in Germany. 
With the necessity for Christian bodies in America, 
England, and France to assume responsibility for 
fields hitherto occupied by Germans, and in view of 
the convictions of certain groups of native Chris- 
tians in the Cameroons, it would appear that Bap- 
tists have a peculiar obligation to discharge. Un- 
assisted, Baptists in France will be utterly unable 
to occupy that part of the missionary line in the 
Cameroons which may be regarded as a Baptist sec- 
tor. Here is a field of activity in which the Bap- 
tists of France may require the practical cooperation 
of their brethren in America and England. 



[5] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

Another conference on Wednesday was with Rev. 
Andre Monod, secretary of the Union Protestant 
Committee for War Relief in France and Belgium, 
with which our Board is asked to cooperate in as- 
sisting Protestant churches in the period of recon- 
struction. This committee is endeavoring to ascer- 
tain as nearly as possible the needs of the churches 
and the wisest methods of procedure. Upon the 
invitation of Mr. Monod I met later in the day a 
small group of well-known Protestant leaders. An- 
other meeting was promised me upon my return 
from the devastated areas. Letters to government 
representatives were furnished me, requesting that 
I be given assistance in my plans for visiting various 
sections. A considerable body of data regarding 
the needs of the churches was at this time placed 
in my hands. 

Today I have held a long informal conference 
with the following representatives of the Franco- 
Beige Association: Rev. Philemon Vincent, M. O. 
Beguelin, Rev. H. Andru, Rev. P. Pelce, M. R. 
Recher. The field of this Association lies largely 
in the areas made desolate by the German armies. 
Early in our conference there were warm expres- 
sions of gratitude at the relief furnished through 
our Society to needy people in their section. It was 
evident too that they welcomed a visitor from their 
American brethren. I shall go to practically all 
points in northern France and southern Belgium 
where there were Baptist churches, as well as to 

[6] 



FIRST DAYS IN FRANCE 



other points where vahiable information can be se- 
cured, if the Government will issue me the neces- 
sary permits, and transportation is available. The 
railroads cannot be restored to all the points for 
some time to come. 



17 



II 

A Journey Into Devastated Areas 

Hotel Continental, Paris, 
March 22, 1919. 

At nine o'clock this evening I returned from a 
thirteen-hour motor trip (two hundred and ten 
miles), whose objective was Chauny and La Fere, 
in that large area in northern France made silent 
and desolate through the unspeakably terrible havoc 
of the German armies. At Chauny and La Fere 
there were Baptist churches with substantial houses 
of worship before the towns were laid in ruins. 

I had not intended going into any of the devas- 
tated regions before seeing something of the Prot- 
estant work in southern France, but M. Recher, an 
engineer who is conducting the reconstruction of 
railways in a section of northern France, invited 
Pastor Philemon Vincent and me to be his guests 
today for a tour of that region in which he was 
reared. M. Recher is a member of the Baptist 
church at La Fere, serves on the Committee of 
the Franco-Beige Association, and represents his 
denomination on the Union Protestant Committee 
for War Relief. 

[8] 



A JOURNEY INTO DEVASTATED AREAS 

Before eight o'clock this morning we were off in 
a Hght flurry of snow, which quickly disappeared, 
and soon we were being driven rapidly past the 
outer line of the defenses of Paris and northward 
over the great stone roadway along which Von 
Kluck marched with his army in early September, 
1914, . in confident expectation that he would see 
Paris fall in a few days. Quickly we were at 
Senlis, twenty-five miles north of the center of 
Paris, which was burned on September 2, 1914, 
the first town thus destroyed in the hope of ter- 
rorizing the metropolis itself. A few moments later 
we stopped in front of the ruins of the massive 
wall which the crown prince of Bavaria erected for 
the protection of his own precious body from the 
shells of the French. Near the roadway were the 
chateaux where German oflicers made their head- 
quarters. 

Our first stop of length was in the city of Com- 
piegne to note the wreck of the home of Rev. H. 
Andru, pastor of the Baptist church at La Fere, one 
of the many results of air raids in that vicinity in 
1918. The Reformed (Presbyterian) church build- 
ing near-by was shattered. These, however, were 
almost forgotten two hours later when we reached 
the region of utter desolation. After the battle of 
the Marne, in September, 1914, when the enemy 
was only fourteen miles from Paris, Von Kluck was 
compelled to retreat to a line a few miles north of 
Compiegne. You will recall how for three and a 

[9] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

half years neither side could advance very far, 
despite the desperate fighting-. We were not long, 
therefore, in reaching what was for more than three 
years a sector of " no man's land," with its maze 
after maze of barbed-wire entanglements between 
the trenches, and the countless dugouts and shell- 
holes. Fields for miles on each side of the lines are 
still uncultivated, partly because men are not yet 
free for that work, and partly because so many un- 
exploded shells are buried there that it is not safe 
to use the plow until an instrument with sensitive 
needle can be used to locate the danger-spots. 
From some fields many shells have already been 
dug, that lie piled along the roadside like cordwood. 
Here too began to appear the little groups of 
white crosses, making for me the most solemn 
moments of the day. The lines that were known 
everywhere in America a year ago, kept coming 
into my mind : 

We are the Dead. Short days ago 
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, 
Loved and were loved ; and now we lie 
In Flanders fields. 

Take up our quarrel with the foe, . . 
If ye break faith with us who die 
We shall not sleep, etc. 

With the exception of a few soldiers tramping 
along the road here and there, an occasional army 
truck, and once in a while a wagon loaded with the 

[lO] 



A JOURNEY INTO DEVASTATED AREAS 

furniture of some one trying to find the old home 
(if the walls were still standing), there were few 
signs of life anywhere in that area where cannon 
thundered, shells shrieked, and waves of men were 
cut down a few months ago. The stillness and ab- 
sence of life at present are painful, and the black- 
ened dead trees stand like ghosts, if they stand at 
all, after the destruction wrought by the Germans 
as they retreated in 191 8. 

We stopped next at Noyon, where John Calvin 
was born. Seven thousand people lived there be- 
fore the war. Now not more than one thousand 
can find homes where the city lies in ruins. But 
people zuill come back, and; some have found a 
corner in the ruins of their structures. With boards 
for doors and paper in the window-frames, and such 
furniture as they have secured elsewhere, they are 
starting life again. I saw perhaps six or eight 
places in the ruins where very humble efforts were 
being made to open shops. In one there were little 
packets of seeds on a rough table (not in litho- 
graphed bags, if you please, but in scraps of old 
newspapers), and women dressed in black were 
there to find some germs of life to plant in the 
desert, since the wild flowers here and there on a 
roadside remind them that spring is here. In the 
same shop was a basket of hens, with this card over 
it, " Poultry for reproduction." And about all that 
some of these women in black can hope for very 
soon is the shelter of a perpendicular wall, a chicken- 

[II] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

coop, a few seeds to make a garden, a black shawl, 
and several fatherless children. When our hearts 
had been moved by it all, we recalled that we were 
looking- for the birthplace of John Calvin, and 
M. Recher, who had known the place well, at last 
located the spot in the ruins. But visitors to 
Noyon in days to come will not find the house in 
which the great Reformer was born. Strange to 
say, even before the war there was not a Prot- 
estant living regularly in the city that gave John 
Calvin to the world. 

A few German prisoners were picking away on 
the heaps of ashes and stones in the ruins of Noyon, 
and a French airplane was buzzing directly overhead, 
when M. Recher said we might as well go on, for 
we should see far worse destruction a little later. 
The destruction was more complete farther on but, 
strange to say, it seemed less painful. When the 
most of a city has been leveled to the ground and 
no person is in sight to claim a heap of stones as 
his own, and there are no jagged broken walls that 
rise like phantoms, with a few black-shawled women 
smiling — yes, smiling — at getting back home, some- 
how it is not quite so harrowing to one's soul, in the 
complete absence of signs of life. 

By noon we were at Chauny, which was a lovely 
little city of twelve thousand people before the war. 
One section of the town was not destroyed. In the 
remaining three-fourths I saw not a single place 
in the entire area that could be occupied except the 

[12] 




The Village of Esnes, Back of Verdun 




The Cathedral at Chauny 



A JOURNEY INTO DEVASTATED AREAS 

Baptist church, whose walls were left standing, and 
the military authorities have placed a roof on it for 
their own use. The house whose walls joined the 
church was completely demolished. I think I saw 
nothing in that area suggestive of furniture ex- 
cept a piece of the pulpit in front of the Baptist 
church. There was not even a picture-frame, nor a 
broken chair, nor a knife-blade. The Germans left 
complete destruction there and elsewhere. In them- 
selves many of the spots would be almost as devoid 
of human interest to a visitor unacquainted with 
their story as are piles of sand in a desert. Even 
the wells were filled with stones if the water had 
not been poisoned instead. 

In Chauny I stood in front of what was the Hotel 
de Ville (city hall), and next I stood inside of what 
once was a splendid cathedral. All was as still as 
death. No person was in sight, besides our party. 
I have not heard a bird chirp all day. It is spring- 
time too, and I have walked through forests and 
over the fields. Seriously, I wonder if the songsters 
have not been scared away for a time by the guns. 
I have been surprised all day at the silence almost 
everywhere north of Compiegne, and the absolute 
silence becomes oppressive to one in the midst of 
ghastly ruins, on roads bordered with deserted 
bomb-proof holes so deep that they are lost in 
shadows, or with woods bestrewn with shell caps, 
munitions, knapsacks, and occasional helmets that 
one is afraid to touch lest they be connected with 

[13] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

hidden bombs. The silence is equally oppressive 
when one finds the rough tables around which the 
German soldiers sat in the woods, underneath trees 
that have been cut with shells, or bunks in the damp 
dugouts, or the long stretches of rusty barbed wire, 
or the shell-holes thirty feet in diameter and of 
equal depth — all so suggestive of the great tragedy. 

Tergnier, a railway center on our road to La Fere, 
is literally razed to the ground. Great shops and 
factories and bridges are leveled to the earth, and 
protruding from the dust and stones are the twisted 
frames of iron and steel and broken machinery. 

In the Baptist church at La Fere M. Recher first 
heard the evangelical message. When he entered 
the badly damaged building today he pointed to a 
spot and said, " There is where I used to sit." 
Again, " In that baptistery all the members of my 
family were baptized." We sought the " pleasant 
home " of one of his friends. The Germans had 
used it as a stable. Across the square from the 
wreck of the Baptist church building is the school 
where Napoleon Bonaparte received his military 
training. Chauny and La Fere are (or were) im- 
portant little cities. Besides the Baptist there was 
no other evangelical church in either place, nor 
within forty miles of La Fere. No Baptists are left 
at Chauny, and only a few at La Fere under present 
conditions. But few people of any belief are left 
in any of the cities in this region. 

Having reached the two towns in that region 

[14] 



A JOURNEY INTO DEVASTATED AREAS 

where Baptist congregations were worshiping before 
the war in their own substantial and neat buildings, 
we veered a bit to the east on the return journey 
in order to pass through Amigny-Rouy, where 
M. Recher had made his home in boyhood. His 
family in Paris had asked him to see if he could 
identify the grandfather's grave near the church 
which is in ruins. A fallen fir tree, killed in the rain 
of shells, identified the spot for him. Then we 
found the ruins of the old home — " My mother's 
home," he said. He took from his cardcase a kodak 
picture made a few years ago, showing a beautiful 
brick cottage with vines on the walls and shrubs in 
the garden. In the ruins there was just one distin- 
guishing feature that could be seen in the picture. 
Going to the fireplace in a wall that was not totally 
destroyed, he pointed to a corner of the hearth and 
said : " That was my place. I used to sit there when 
I was a boy. My room was up there." Finding 
a rusty, twisted iron frame, which was the nearest 
approach to any kind of furniture I saw remaining 
in any ruin today, he said, " That was my aunt's 
bed." Almost all the trees in the orchard seemed 
dead. The ground was full of shell-holes. Going 
into what was once a beautiful garden he found a 
wild plant in bloom, which he took up by the roots, 
saying, " A flower for my house." As we walked 
away I heard him murmur : " Finished ! Finished ! 
Finished ! " 

A peasant dressed in a soldier's old uniform 

[15] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

came out of ruins on a hill in the village as we 
started to our automobile. During the seven months 
of German occupation of Amigny-Rouy he had 
subsisted chiefly on dandelions, chard, and turnips, 
with no potatoes, meat rarely, and only a little 
bread. He said many of the people would come 
back, " For they love the dust of their village." It 
is well they love the dust their feet have trod, for 
there is little left besides. Before we reached 
our car we found a shelter made by some French 
soldiers out of stones from the ruins and sheets 
of rusty iron. Over the doorway was this sign, 
" Villa des Heureux " ( Cottage of the Happy 
Ones). One other man found us in that village. 
He too was dressed in a soldier's old uniform. For 
four years the Germans had kept him in Belgium. 
His wife had fled with the two children to Brittany 
when the Germans destroyed the town. After the 
armistice was signed the family was united and 
the husband had built a big board shack for a home. 
He told me with interest that he had been in 
America twice with Buffalo Bill, as chief of the 
French cavalry in the Wild West show. I re- 
membered that we had left a big sandwich and a 
half-pound cake of chocolate in our lunch-box. As 
the boy unwrapped the sandwich he licked the 
paper for the crumbs that stuck to it before he began 
work on his half of the long crusty roll that was 
split and spread with cheese. The mother gave it 
all to the little ones. 

[i6] 




Back Home Once More 











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A Ruined Section of Noyon, the Town in Which John Calvin 
Was Born 



A JOURNEY INTO DEVASTATED AREAS 

Possibly what I have written you late at night, 
when my brain is feverish from all that I have seen 
and felt the last twenty-four hours, will seem inap- 
propriate in a report on a visit to France to secure 
information regarding the condition of the churches, 
but it may be well for you to be given, as far as I 
can reproduce it, the atmosphere in which I am 
beginning to secure that information, and these are 
the conditions I found today (yesterday now) as 
I journeyed to Baptist church buildings. Nor is it 
exceptional. As we separated tonight Pastor Vin- 
cent said, " This state of things exists in two thou- 
sand cities, towns, and villages on a front seven 
hundred kilometers (about four hundred and fifty 
miles) in length." One feels like apologizing to the 
original Huns for giving their name to those who 
set the world afire in 1914. Tonight as I came up 
to my room and mentioned to an elevator operator, 
who wears an artificial arm as a result of the war, 
that I had spent the day in the ruined towns to the . 
north, he expressed my feelings in his abbreviated 
English, " Impossible to believe without seeing." 



[17] 



Ill 

A Great Protestant Meeting in Paris 

Sunday, March 23, 1919. 

After the scenes of yesterday it was pleasing to 
be in houses of worship in Paris today, and see all 
of them crowded with people. At 11 o'clock I at- 
tended service at the American Church, whose pas- 
tor, Rev. Chauncey W. Goodrich, D. D., kindly 
called at my hotel last week and offered to assist 
me in any possible way to secure the information I 
desire. The building, which will accommodate 
about five hundred people, was filled with Amer- 
icans, most of whom were in khaki. Secretary 
«*Lansing and Ambassador Sharp were present. 

I was peculiarly fortunate in reaching Paris in 
time to attend the great Protestant meeting held 
this afternoon in celebration of victory. The large 
hall known as the Trocadero was packed with en- 
thusiastic people. Doubtless thousands of others 
would have been present had there been room for 
them. Since only five thousand could be seated, 
admission was by ticket. M. Du Barry and I were 
given excellent reserved seats in the same box, 
which made it possible for me to understand 

[18] 



A GREAT PROTESTANT MEETING IN PARIS 

the spirit of the addresses in French. The Hon. 
Jules Siegfried, senior member of the Chamber of 
Deputies, presided and deUvered an eloquent ad- 
dress in which he made much of the part played 
in the war by Protestants, calling especial attention 
to President Wilson and Lloyd George. I am told 
that the French people are much impressed with 
the virility of Protestantism as illustrated in Amer- 
ica, and that there is a corresponding lack of ap- 
preciation of the course of the Vatican during the 
war. At the same time agents of the Vatican are 
said to be claiming large credit for the war, de- 
claring that the best soldiers from England and 
America were Roman Catholics. 

In the program at the Trocadero today there was 
large recognition of America. A noted actress, a 
Protestant, recited Victor Hugo's prophecy that 
some day America would join hands with France 
to save Europe, which was received with great 
applause, as were letters from President Wilson 
and Lloyd George. But the moment of most in- 
tense enthusiasm came when a pastor from rescued 
Alsace came forward for an address, accompanied 
by two girls dressed in the old Alsatian costume. 

One could not attend the great meeting this after- 
noon without feeling that there is real strength 
in the Protestant movement here. Ambassador 
Sharp publicly pronounced it one of the finest oc- 
casions he has attended in France. Two of the 
hymns which were used were written by our own 

[19] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

Doctor Saillens, who has been the best and most 
prolific hymn-writer in France. I have been told 
here that years ago the most prominent and popular 
Reformed church pastor in Paris wished Doctor 
Saillens to become his successor, where he could 
have preached to thousands instead of to hundreds 
as pastor of a Baptist church. He is a Baptist 
at large personal cost, although he gives his efforts 
chiefly now to the general evangelical movement. 

In view of the large meeting of Protestants at 
the Trocadero at 2.30 o'clock, I questioned the 
wisdom of attempting a meeting at a later hour 
the same afternoon, at Avenue du Maine Baptist 
Church (Franco-Beige Association), but the room 
which accommodates two hundred and fifty or three 
hundred people was filled, and I have seldom had 
such a sympathetic hearing when speaking through 
an interpreter. Rev. Philemon Vincent, an able 
man, is pastor there. Members of Rue de Lille 
Baptist Church, the largest organization in the 
Franco-Swiss Association, were present in good 
numbers, their pastor among them. 



[ 20 



IV 

In the Old Huguenot Country 
and Across to Alsace 

Hotel Continental, Paris, 
April 3, 1919. 

I have just completed ten days of touring, which 
included the old Huguenot country in southern 
France, several points near the Swiss frontier, and 
a portion of Alsace. After my day in the deso- 
late regions north of Paris, a change to sunny 
southern France was most welcome. The warmth 
of springtime was over the towns and fields that 
had escaped the havoc wrought elsewhere by the 
war. But the journey was tiresome, since it began 
with a full night in a second-class compartment 
with seven other people, and most of the next day 
was spent on a train which was run in several long 
sections in order to handle the soldiers, who crowd 
even the corridors and vestibules at times. 

My first stop after leaving Paris was at Nimes, 
where Rev. R. Du Barry is pastor of the Baptist 
church of sixty members, worshiping in a rented 
hall. Here too Rev. Ruben Saillens, D. D,, has 
made his home with his wife and daughter every 

[21] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

winter for the last five years, going out to various 
points for series of meetings with the evangelical 
churches, which in that section are almost exclu- 
sively the Reformed. After seeing what doors are 
open to him there, I do not wonder at his fondness 
for labor much of the year in the Huguenot country. 

Nimes itself is an important city of over eighty 
thousand inhabitants, one-fourth of whom are Prot- 
estants. Here are to be found some of the best 
of all the Roman ruins. Nothing of like age in 
Rome is better preserved than the Maison Carree 
(two thousand years old) in Nimes, from which 
the Madeleine in Paris was designed. The gate 
of Agrippa, the baths, and the Coliseum are full of 
interest for the archeologist. And on the hill over- 
looking the city is the great stone tower which is 
said to have been erected a thousand years before 
the Romans came to that region. However, I had 
little time for archeology. After a late afternoon 
arrival and evening meeting, I was hurried away 
ea.rly next morning for a visit to the Hugue- 
not country, whose proximity to Nimes is respon- 
sible for the large Protestant community in that 
city. The hall in which I spoke there was packed 
with fully five hundred persons, who showed the 
utmost heartiness in their reception of the visitor. 
Probably not more than fifty in the audience were 
Baptists. 

Colonel Goodfellow, in command of the detach- 
ment of United States soldiers at Nimes, which is 

[22] 



THE HUGUENOT COUNTRY AND ALSACE 

one of the numerous points in France where our 
men are permitted to go on leave, kindly placed 
an army automobile and his own chauffeur at our 
disposal for the journey to several points in the 
Huguenot country. The Desert, which is the name 
given to the hills and fastnesses where the early 
Protestants defended themselves against their per- 
secutors, was our first objective. Just outside of 
Nimes we passed the stone quarries where thou- 
sands of Protestants were accustomed to gather for 
worship at a single service, with some of their own 
number posted on the hills to warn them of the 
approach of the soldiers who might be sent at any 
hour to arrest them. At that time death was the 
penalty for the Protestant preacher, and imprison- 
ment for his hearers. Under such conditions it 
was impossible for them to possess houses of wor- 
ship. In those days the Roman Catholic bishops 
compelled every king of France at his coronation 
to swear to exterminate the Protestants. Yet the 
Protestants met in large congregations in the hills, 
with watchmen at observation points, or in small 
homes, or in caves. When one considers the great 
influence of the Huguenots on our own life it is 
strange that so few Americans find their way into 
The Desert. At several places the pastors said they 
could not recall other American visitors to their 
churches besides Secretary Macfarland, of the 
Federal Council of Churches, and myself. Doctor 
Saillens said he had never until now heard of an 

[23] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

American Baptist going into The Desert. This 
unanticipated feature of my tour, which has been 
of such vahie in a study of Protestantism in France, 
was arranged for me by Doctor Saillens when he 
heard of my coming. 

I was most fortunate in having Doctor Saillens 
as my host for the days in the Huguenot country. 
He is of Huguenot descent, was born and reared 
near The Desert, and is welcomed by large congre- 
gations wherever he is invited. We passed through 
several towns that day in which the largest halls 
are filled at the announcement that he will speak. 
For instance, at the village where we made our first 
stop on the automobile trip, there is a Reformed 
church building that will accommodate at least 
fifteen hundred people, and Doctor Saillens has 
it crowded whenever he can go there. Leaving 
that village, we proceeded to the beautiful home of 
a M. Hugues, of Huguenot descent, at the gateway 
to The Desert. Here the American flag was dis- 
played at the doorway, and a very hearty welcome, 
including refreshments, was given to the visitors. 
M. Hugues is the directing force in the develop- 
ment of the Museum of The Desert, which is being 
established in the heart of the wilderness region in 
the old residence of Laporte, the Huguenot leader 
during the fierce persecution that was inflicted by 
Louis XIV more than two hundred years ago. In 
this extremely plain house, in a small hamlet in the 
hills, may be found numerous reminders of those 

[24] 



THE HUGUENOT COUNTRY AND ALSACE 

" who died for the defense of the gospel and Hberty," 
as tablets on the walls proclaim. M. Hugues had 
arranged for a group of people from the wilderness 
to come into the Museum and sing some of the 
old Huguenot hymns for us. As I looked at the 
band of simple folk gathered in the plain rooms 
containing reminders of their ancestors who suf- 
fered for freedom of conscience and to secure an 
open Bible, there came the words, " Of whom the 
world was not worthy." " Resist " was their motto, 
and many in that very region did resist even unto 
death. My heart was greatly moved by the thought 
of the sufferings of these early Protestants, whose 
fight for religious freedom has blessed the entire 
world. Nothing could have been of greater value 
to me in my study of Protestantism than this visit 
to the Museum, the large public meetings which I 
had the privilege of addressing at other places 
in that section, and conferences with numerous 
pastors. 

Home after home was opened to us that day, if 
for nothing more than a few minutes of welcome, 
with a cup of coffee everywhere. In the late after- 
noon we reached St. Jean du Gard, a town of three 
thousand people, where Doctor Saillens was bom, 
a mountain near-by still bearing the family name. 
Flags were displayed on the streets and a company 
of Boy Scouts greeted the visitors. The pastors 
of the Reformed Church gave us a beautiful 
dinner at the little hotel, the colors of France and 

[25] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

the United States being displayed freely. At the 
church fully twelve hundred people (Doctor Sail- 
lens estimated fifteen hundred) gave us a vi^elcome 
that the American visitor can never forget. Flags 
of the two nations were in evidence again. How 
queer it seemed to be standing in a box far above 
the heads of the people, speaking down to them! 
But how easy it was to speak to such a responsive 
audience, even through an interpreter! It was 
nearly ten o'clock before the meeting was ended, 
but we must go to one more home for tea and cake 
before the automobile was permitted to leave the 
assembled crowd that cried: "Vive I'Amerique! 
Vive I'Amerique! " As our car passed along the 
narrow streets the people stood in the doorways 
to bid us a cordial farewell. In that town nine- 
tenths of the people are Protestants, and the record 
for sobriety and rectitude is truly remarkable. I 
was told that nearly every person in the audience 
that evening could claim a martyr somewhere in his 
line of ancestors. We saw the spot where some of 
them were put to death for being Protestants and 
preaching their convictions. 

Midnight found us at Alais, a city of forty 
thousand people, one-fourth of whom are Protes- 
tants, where Doctor S alliens had arranged some 
time before to begin next day a series of meetings. 
Here too we had a reception that warmed the heart. 
At the evening service the great stone church was 
packed with at least twelve hundred people. They 

[26] 



THE HUGUENOT COUNTRY AND ALSACE 

said I was the first American preacher to occupy 
their pulpit. 

I was not foolish enough to suppose that the 
reception given me was in any sense personal. 
Partly it was because I had come from America 
at a good hour. At one place the girls sang a 
stanza of the " Star Spangled Banner," in English. 
But the reception was due principally to the fact 
that I was with Doctor Saillens, who as an evan- 
gelical preacher has such a great hold on the hearts 
of those people. I have seldom seen such a readi- 
ness to listen to a gospel message. I am inclined 
to feel that the descendants of the Huguenots may 
yet have a very special mission to France if only 
they are fired with a new zeal. At present many 
of them are very backward in their methods and 
are in great need of a revival within their churches. 
If they were aflame with zeal, and if Christian edu- 
cational institutions were within their reach, France 
might feel again the force of the Huguenots. There 
is latent power in this group of possibly one hun- 
dred thousand Protestants in southern France. I 
would have remained longer in the old wilderness 
country, but appointments had been made for me 
in churches near the Swiss frontier for the ap- 
proaching Sunday, and I was compelled to hurry 
away. 

Sunday, March 30, found me at Montbeliard 
near the Swiss frontier, where Pastor Blocher, of 
the Rue de Lille Church in Paris, joined me as 

[27] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

pilot and interpreter. The snows of the Alps seemed 
to fall on eastern France that day. The people 
could not remember such a storm in springtime. 
Before the hour for the church service arrived, 
telephone, telegraph, and electric-light wires were 
on the ground and no trains were running. In 
spite of the storm the Baptist church building was 
about half filled. Most of the ninety members live 
in the villages in the hills. But the visit with Pas- 
tor Jaccard and family would have been well worth 
while, even had there been no other opportunity to 
learn something regarding religious conditions in 
that part of France. An automobile succeeded in 
reaching Valentigny with us in time for an evening 
meeting that was well attended, although the storm 
made attendance difficult. Arrangements had been 
made for a popular gathering in a large auditorium, 
which Pastor Lucian Louys declared would have 
been crowded under different conditions. I men- 
tion these details that you may understand how 
friendly is the attitude of many toward evangelical 
movements. I was much touched at seeing Pastor 
Jaccard, wife, son, and daughter, of Montbeliard, 
who had walked five miles after the storm to attend 
the evening meeting at Valentigny, and started 
back home at ten o'clock. A Baptist family living 
on the Swiss frontier started in the early morning 
to walk to a point where a train usually can be 
found. Finding the trains held up by the storm, 
they trudged on for the ten miles. The father was 

[ 28 ] 



THE HUGUENOT COUNTRY AND ALSACE 

^^— ■'■ " ■ I — ■■ ■ ■ — ■.. ■ II ■ ■ ■■■- 

an old man, and the son had spent four years as a 
prisoner of war in Germany, One of Pastor Louys' 
sons was walking on an artificial leg, the result of 
his response to his captain's call for volunteers to 
go out and bring in a wounded German soldier 
near the French line. The Romanists predominate 
in this section, but there are numerous Reformed 
churches, since the region once belonged to Swit- 
zerland, where the people imbibed Calvinistic ideas. 
The roads on Monday were in such condition 
we could not carry out our program for going by 
automobile into southern Alsace, as guests of 
M. Wyss, a French Baptist layman, and of his son, 
in whose homes we had been entertained, and the 
trains were belated. It was nearing nine o'clock 
at night when we reached the little Baptist church 
at Mulhouse, a city of one hundred thousand, where 
the people were waiting for us, although we had 
disappointed them in the afternoon, and with the 
wires down we could not reach them with a tele- 
gram. It was interesting to find ourselves in what 
had been German territory before Alsace-Lorraine 
was restored to France. We were on German 
railway cars, manned by German officials, and peo- 
ple speaking German were all around us. The 
people, whose hearts as a rule were with France, 
had been compelled to use the German language, 
but when the troops of France occupied the city in 
November, 1918, a French flag was flying from al- 
most every window. There is much of interest that 

[29] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

might be said regarding the political attitude of the 
people of Alsace if there were time to write it. I 
received a decided impression that most of the 
Alsatians (not the German immigrants) prefer to 
be under the French flag. 

All the towns we visited in Alsace had been Ger- 
man bases in the war. Twice the French took Mul- 
house and twice the Germans retook it. Yet the 
town is practically uninjured. " Military necessity " 
did not seem to require the Germans to destroy a 
city which they claimed as their own, even though 
they were twice driven from it. Their treatment of 
a city they called their own was far different from 
that given towns in France under similar military 
conditions. I confess that when the lights were out 
at my hotel, and I recalled that I was sleeping in a 
bed often occupied by Boche officers whose armies 
had been responsible for the ghastly ruins I had 
seen in France, I was dangerously near a revival 
of my boyhood fear of spooks. 

At Colmar, a city of fifty thousand, the Baptist 
church is really Anabaptist, and, accordingly, does 
not conform in its mode of baptism with the prac- 
tice of many who seem to require the Anabaptists 
in order to prove Baptist succession. The pastor, 
four years in the German army as a hospital as- 
sistant, was away from home. He is a German by 
birth, but, on principle as an Anabaptist, opposes 
war. The wife received us most cordially in the 
simple home and would have us remain for a de- 

[30] 



THE HUGUENOT COUNTRY AND ALSACE 

licious meal she prepared for us and for a few 
representatives of other churches whom she had 
invited to come in and talk with us. I have been 
entertained in a good many French homes whose 
hospitahty was beautiful and where I had windows 
opened for me in many directions. Indeed, I have 
been living with the French these weeks. But noth- 
ing of the kind has touched me more deeply than 
the reception in this German Anabaptist home at 
Colmar. 

It is interesting to know that Germany never won 
the Alsatians. For the most part, their hearts were 
with France in the war, and a good many of them 
escaped across the frontier in time to join the 
French army. Many other Alsatians were not 
trusted by Germany to fight the French, and they 
were sent to oppose Russia in the east. In north- 
ern Alsace the German immigration has been heavy 
since 1870, although it may be questioned whether 
the pure Alsatians even there were satisfied with 
their German connections. Strassburg (now called 
Strasbourg by the French, as Miilhausen is called 
Mulhouse), a fine city of two hundred and fifty 
thousand or three hundred thousand people, was 
a strongly fortified German base, and by reason of 
immigration from Germany the people there were 
quite sympathetic with the Kaiser. 

Pastor P. Schild, of the Baptist church at Stras- 
bourg with a membership of ninety -five (mostly 
Germans), had written Pastor Blocher, of Paris, 

[31] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

expressing the opinion that on account of the polit- 
ical changes and the consequent exodus of many 
Germans in the near future (voluntary for some 
and possibly enforced for others) it might be better 
for the church to secure a French pastor. The most 
influential members of the church have been in the 
service of the German Government, and it is likely 
that they will return to their own country in the 
near future. The pastor himself is a German and 
was in the army for two years. Under such con- 
ditions we anticipated nothing more at Strasbourg 
than a brief call on the pastor to secure informa- 
tion. It was surprising, therefore, and almost em- 
barrassing, to be told that a meeting of the church 
had been called for that evening in the small rented 
hall used as a place of worship, in order to receive 
us and hear vis. Since we were on what is now 
French territory we could attend and address such 
a meeting without a violation of proprieties, al- 
though a treaty of peace has not yet been signed. 
But, seriously, I wondered what to say to the peo- 
ple who a few months ago had supported the Kaiser. 
None of the addresses I had made elsewhere in 
France, including southern Alsace, would fit here, 
for elsewhere I had been able to speak to my hear- 
ers as allies or sympathizers in the great war. The 
pastor opened the meeting with the statement that 
we were having a prophecy of the coming kingdom 
of God, in a meeting in which Christians found 
themselves ready to rise above their past political 

[32] 



THE HUGUENOT COUNTRY AND ALSACE 

differences. He said publicly that they knew that 
while he loved his own country he had never held 
violent political feelings. I shall not attempt to in- 
dicate how Pastor Blocher (who interpreted for 
me) and I handled the situation, except to say that 
we avoided the political issues after using the events 
of the last five years as evidence of the world's 
deep need of spiritual renewal. However, I did tell 
them of some of the devastation wrought by war 
in northern France. There was hearty approval 
when I said militarism had failed utterly, and there 
was agreement that nothing less than the spiritual 
renewal of man through all that is represented in 
Christ's cross will suffice. There were smiles all 
over the audience when I said that they did not look 
as if they wished to fight me again, and I surely did 
not wish to fight them; that we must find a better 
way. 

I hope our visit to Strasbourg, which took such 
an unexpected turn, will do good. Pastor Blocher 
heard Herr Mascher, a brother of prominent Bap- 
tists in Germany, say to some one else that the 
visit proved that after all some one was interested 
in them. In all Alsace-Lorraine there are not more 
than two hundred and fifty or three hundred Bap- 
tists. There are said to be many Anabaptists. 

Soon after leaving Strasbourg our train entered 
the territory where the line of battle on the eastern 
frontier of France remained practically stationary 
from the summer of 1914 until the armistice was 

[33] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

signed. Many towns within range of the guns were 
reduced to ruins, although they were not so com- 
pletely demolished as some I had seen north of 
Paris. For several miles the newly constructed 
railway was cutting through the wide rusty hedges 
of barbed-wire defenses that stretched, at short in- 
tervals, in long lines into the valleys and over the 
hills. It appeared that on this frontier each side 
was endeavoring chiefly to prevent the advance of 
the other, while using its forces at more critical 
points. 

Passing near Rheims, I detoured in that direction 
for a few hours. It would be impossible for me 
to describe how the face of the earth has been 
mutilated for a good many miles southeast of that 
city. While we hear most regarding the great in- 
jury done the beautiful cathedral at Rheims, nearly 
the entire city also has been so swept by shell-fire 
that it will be difficult to repair many of the build- 
ings. One hundred and ten thousand people lived 
there before the war. Comparatively few seem to 
live there now. In company with three American 
army officers I made a trip in an automobile to 
what was Fort La Pompelle, southeast of Rheims 
about seven miles, which the French held for nearly 
four years before losing it for a few months to 
the Germans. Today it is a mound of dust, with 
parts of the stone walls protruding. The top of the 
great hill was literally turned over and over again 
by the heavy explosions. The surrounding coun- 

[34] 





Not Even the Cemeteries Were Spared 









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fll 
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luli 


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In the City of Rheims. The Famous Cathedral in the 
Distance 



THE HUGUENOT COUNTRY AND ALSACE 

try too is cut into trenches and is bestrewn with 
unexplocled shells and hand-grenades, between the 
dugouts and in the thickets of barbed wire. An oc- 
casional gas-mask or helmet or German overcoat 
may be seen, and graves of French and German 
soldiers. Several German tanks were left in the 
fields near-by. 

This first departure from my itinerary of inves- 
tigation of religious conditions was well worth 
while. The express-train on which I hurried back 
to Paris swept down the valley of the Marne, past 
Chateau Thierry, where I could not stop this time. 
The silent ruins of many a town on the hillsides are 
in striking contrast with the really exquisite beauty 
of the blue waters of the placid stream that is all 
but level with the green meadows. I had spent the 
night at a little hotel that was struck by a German 
shell in 1914, at Chalons-sur-Marne. An American 
soldier was helping me to find a lodging, and we 
were crossing a bridge when he remarked, " That's 
the river which ran red in 1914." 



[35] 



V 



Religious Conditions in France. A Visit 
to the Bretons 

On Railway Train, in France, 
April 8, 1919. 

Just now I am returning- to Paris after a very 
interesting visit to the Province of Brittany. But, 
before giving you any of my observations during 
the short stay among the Bretons, I shall attempt 
a brief statement regarding the strength of various 
religious groups in France, although I recognize 
how difficult it is for a visitor to make an accurate 
deliverance on such a question. 

While France is recognized as a Roman Catholic 
country, it may be questioned (if my information 
is correct) whether religion for most of the people 
here is not very largely a matter of tradition or in- 
heritance rather than of personal experience. It is 
hard for Protestants of America to realize to what 
extent religion is a matter of inheritance in France 
and how many of the people classify themselves as 
Catholics or Protestants according to ancestry. It 
is especially hard for American Baptists, who in- 
sist so strongly on a personal experience, to com- 

[36] 



RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS IN FRANCE 

prehend the situation here. The attitude of the 
Government toward Protestants was so strongly an- 
tag-onistic, century after century, that religious 
questions took on a political significance which is 
felt even today. Thus a Frenchman may not hesi- 
tate to declare himself Romanist or Protestant, and 
yet make no claim to personal interest in religious 
questions. Many in each of the two main divisions 
are said to be merely nominal Catholics or Prot- 
estants. 

Before the war the population of France was 
estimated at thirty-eight millions. Of this number 
six hundred thousand or seven hundred thousand 
were Protestants, seventy thousand were Jews, and 
some (perhaps many) were avowedly agnostic. 
The rest were at least nominally Romanists, al- 
though it is said that only six or seven million of 
them show any real interest in their church. Many 
of the rest are " anticlerical." It is estimated that 
to at least thirty million in France religion is purely 
a formal matter, to which they give no serious 
personal consideration. This fact needs to be borne 
in mind. 

Most French Protestants are members of the 
Reformed Church, which historically is the child 
of the Huguenot movement. Before the war the 
Lutherans numbered seventy-five thousand, the 
"Free churches" (so named when the Reformed 
as well as the Roman Catholic bodies received state 
support) one thousand five hundred; Baptists and 

[37] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

Methodists about two thousand each ; the Plymouth 
Brethren six thousand or more; and the Salvation 
Army a few. The McAU Mission is not an eccle- 
siastical body. The restoration of Alsace-Lorraine 
will change the figures somewhat. In Alsace there 
are about forty thousand Protestants, three-fourths 
of whom are Lutherans, and nearly all the rest are 
Reformed. There are six Baptist churches in Al- 
sace-Lorraine, with a membership of about three 
hundred. In the same territory there are about 
one million five hundred thousand Roman Catholics. 
That part of Lorraine which has been recovered is 
said to be almost solidly Roman Catholic. 

The Reformed Church, which is several times as 
large as all other Protestant bodies in France com- 
bined, and makes much of John Calvin and others 
in its ecclesiastical ancestry, is divided into two 
synods whose boundaries are theological and not at 
all geographical. Generally they are known as the 
" conservatives " and the " liberals." It is not un- 
common for one group with a pastor of acceptable 
theological views to occupy the house of worship 
at the morning hour on Sunday, while a second 
group will meet there at a different hour with a 
pastor of their own preference leading them, and 
each group belonging to a different synod. Some- 
times a single large parish (Nimes, for instance) 
will have four or more pastors, some of whom are 
" liberal " and the others " conservative," caring for 
the work at the central building and in the several 

[38] 



RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS IN FRANCE 

chapels that often are commodious houses of wor- 
ship. In such cases a schedule of services is an- 
nounced in advance, a pastor preaching at the cen- 
tral building or a chapel for a Sunday and then at 
other chapels in turn until he has made the rounds, 
much as he would do if he were the only pastor 
for several groups of people. Three of the five 
pastors at Nimes belong to one synod and two to 
the other. And these are ecclesiastical descendants 
of John Calvin and the Huguenots ! The situation 
makes more iridescent the dream of the advocates 
of organic church union. 

In the days when the state supported religion 
the Reformed Church as well as the Roman Catholic 
was recognized. This fact, coupled with the noble 
history of the Reformed Church, may have given 
that large group a consciousness of being the Prot- 
estant body of France, and other evangelicals ap- 
pear to have been regarded at times with some 
disfavor. With some of its number possibly this 
feeling still abides, but with many my reception as a 
Baptist was as cordial as it could have been in any 
church in America. 

When state support was discontinued the Re- 
formed Church agreed on a scale of salaries for its 
pastors, the cost of living in various communities 
being considered, and now each congregation makes 
weekly contributions to the central fund of its synod 
for distribution according to the approved scale. 
Thus the strong parish helps the weak field. In 

[39] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

their foreign mission work and in many other ac- 
tivities the two synods of the Reformed Church are 
in active cooperation. 

As to the effect of the war on the Roman Catholic 
work in France it is hard to speak with confidence. 
A visitor is compelled to secure his information 
from those with whom the wish is likely to be the 
father of the thought. The prestige of the Vatican 
as represented in the present pope appears to have 
suffered in the minds of very many thoughtful 
people in France, but the attitude of one pope is 
not in itself sufficient to disturb permanently the 
grip of Rome. The thought processes of the masses, 
when they think at all for themselves, are usually 
the product of the fervor and devotion of many 
generations, and the effect is so apparent in almost 
every phase of life here that a single convulsion, 
even one as titanic as the great war, will not change 
it instantly. It may be questioned whether either 
Protestant or Catholic in France can use the war 
as a telling argument against the other. If the 
attitude of the Vatican should be thrown into the 
face of Romanists here, the immediate responsibility 
for the war may promptly be laid at the door of a 
nation whose religion is professedly Protestant. A 
foe who destroyed so many of their cathedrals will 
hardly be considered by the masses as in any kind 
of alliance with Rome. 

The judgment of a visitor to France is very 
likely to be superficial on the deeper things in the 

[40] 



RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS IN FRANCE 

life of the people, and therefore I express my 
opinion with hesitancy, but I am inclined to believe 
that any approach to France today with attempt 
to make capital out of the attitude of the Vatican 
in the war would react. The Romanists, like others, 
prefer to note for themselves the failures in their 
own household, and the effect of any tirade against 
their religion might intensify them in their defense. 
Without question, there is dissatisfaction on the 
part of many in France at what they find in the 
dominant Church, and they desire greater reality in 
the expression of religion, as is true in America as 
well.i If evangelical Christians can furnish the spir- 
itual food that is desired at this hour in France as 
well as elsewhere, they have a great mission; but 
for these times wisdom more than human is re- 
quired. In my judgment, no bold attempt from 
the outside to inundate France will succeed, al- 
though I think I see certain native springs whose 
flow could be accelerated. 

There can be little doubt that Protestantism has 
a new prestige since the war, but at present the 
masses are not seeking anything new. However, 
there does appear to be an atmospheric condition 
which if not positively favorable is less unfriendly 
to evangelicals. If a spiritual contribution can be 
made to France now by evangelicals of other lands, 
without display and with evidently disinterested 
motive, there exists an opportunity to render a real 
service. Just the form which the service should 

[41] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

take is another matter, and here is where much 
wisdom will be required. And while Protestantism 
may be regarded with greater respect, it may be 
questioned whether there is any deeper interest in 
organizations. 

These questions are too large for adequate 
discussion here. An American officer who sat at 
lunch with me on the train today, knowing nothing 
whatever of me or my mission, spoke at length of 
the effect of the war on his religious thinking, and 
of his conclusion not to unite with any church al- 
though he had once intended doing so. After our 
conversation had revealed my own attitude and I 
repeated what I had heard of the personal feeling 
of soldiers on the day of the armistice, he quickly 
replied, " Oh, every man who has been to the front 
believes in God." From what I am hearing I am 
inclined to believe that the general eft'ect of the 
war on the religious thought of France is not far 
from the effect in America, allowance being made 
for the varying ecclesiastical conditions. I wish it 
were possible for me to give you many of the in- 
teresting details of interviews, but I find little time 
for writing except late at night or on railway 
journeys. 

The reason for my visit to Brittany was the 
urgent request of Pastor Blocher that I go with 
him to meet several representatives of small unor- 
ganized Baptist groups and a few Quakers, who 
are about all the evangelicals in the land of the old 

[42] 



RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS IN FRANCE 

Druids, which was described to me as the darkest 
part of France in some respects. The attitude of 
the Romanists there in other years was one of in- 
tense opposition to everything bearing a Protestant 
name. English Baptists have furnished the chief 
support for evangehcal effort in Brittany, either 
through their own Missionary Society, or through 
an independent committee. In view of the Welsh 
immigration to Brittany long ago, the British peo- 
ple may appropriately consider this their field for 
assistance to the evangelical forces. Therefore I 
need not go into details regarding the situation in 
Brittany, a country with a quaint appearance and 
with quainter people. The stone houses, with mold 
on the walls and on the roofs of tile or thatch, sug- 
gest Scotland. The thick earthen embankments, 
six feet or more in height, that serve as fences, sug- 
gest the dikes of Holland. The Bretons who popu- 
late that part of Brittany which I visited, with 
their heavy wooden shoes and the flaring white 
head-dress of the women, make one think again of 
the Netherlands. 

Thus far little effort has been made by French 
Baptists in Brittany to organize churches. They 
seem to think that a leavening process is necessary 
and that their first duty is to serve the people in 
such a spirit as to break down opposition. It is 
evident that the life and labors of the present gen- 
eration of workers, nearly all of whom are French 
by birth, have done much to overcome the hatred of 

[43] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

Romanists in the two sections in which they labor. 
One center, at Morlaix, is in charge of a Mr. 
Jenkins, born in France, the son of Enghsh parents 
who were sent to Brittany by the Baptist Mission- 
ary Society of England about seventy-five years 
ago for work among the Bretons. Mr. Jenkins is 
more French than English in both language and 
thought. Another center of evangelical effort is 
Tremel, which was really the first station opened 
by the English Baptist missionaries. Two of the 
early converts in the work of Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins, 
Sr., were M. and Mme. Le Coat, who became strong 
leaders. Soon the English missionaries decided to 
leave Tremel to the French converts. 

Pasteur Le Coat planned a mission of extraor- 
dinary scope. The compound on a hill where trees 
and evergreens were planted with a view to good 
effect, with a small trout stream in the meadows 
at the rear, holds eight or ten stone structures whose 
various uses before the war prove the vision of the 
designer. First of all is the chapel, into which pos- 
sibly two hundred people might be crowded. Then 
there are school buildings — one for boys and an- 
other for girls ; a " hospice " where sick people 
could find a bed in which to rest and old poor people 
a place to die, while something might be done for 
their comfort ; an orphanage, a dispensary, and sev- 
eral residences. Near the gate, on the public high- 
way, is a " tramp house," where moneyless travelers 
might find shelter. Close at hand was a flax-mill 

[44] 



RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS IN FRANCE 

that furnished employment and gave training as 
well. In a shed are several conveyances — one of 
them a gospel wagon — that were used in the evan- 
gelistic and industrial work. At outposts are sev- 
eral good buildings that were used as preaching- 
places. Most of this equipment has been unused 
since 1914. With the outbreak of the war some of 
the staff joined the colors. All were French by 
birth except one, a Welshman who came to France 
when a boy and is therefore French in his attitude 
and accent. In the early days of the war Pasteur 
and Mme. Le Coat died, and with the death also 
of the leader of the independent committee in En- 
gland the financial support of the mission was sud- 
denly lessened, while wartime prices continued to 
prevail. The number of orphans being educated 
at the mission was cut in half, shops were closed, 
wagons were placed under shelter, and the school 
for boys was discontinued. The Welshman and his 
wife, self-supporting, and the two Le Quere sisters 
and another woman are holding the situation. Each 
of the Le Quere sisters, converts of the mission, 
continues there at a salary of six hundred francs 
per annum ($120) besides her own living. 

The Tremel mission appealed to me as an oppor- 
tunity to render useful service if the work were 
well directed. Like most other independent mis- 
sionary movements, the mission finds itself stranded. 
But there can be no question that it has made a 
favorable impression and has gained the confidence 

[45] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

of a community in what was described to me as 
" the darkest part of France." Despite the hold of 
Roman Catholicism on the people, they do not 
hesitate to go to the chapel at the mission when 
they are interested in what is being done there. 
Perhaps the priests would discourage or forbid 
their attendance if the place were called a church. 
It may be the Baptists there have been wise in not 
attempting to organize churches. They are inter- 
ested now chiefly in reaching the people with the 
gospel message. The evening I spoke in the chapel 
about one hundred and fifty Bretons in their heavy 
wooden shoes thundered down the stone aisles. The 
white wings on the heads of the women made a 
queer picture in the dim light. They preferred that 
my address be interpreted into Breton rather than 
French. In a single week I had been interpreted 
into three tongues, and all in France. At the con- 
clusion of my address the children of the orphanage 
sang the " Star Spangled Banner " in French. A 
little later a group of the villagers, returning home 
in the moonlight, were heard singing as they joined 
in the old-time Breton dance, shuffling their heavy 
wooden clogs over the stones. 

I do not know any other place where ignorant 
peasant people in a community so strongly Roman 
Catholic would go in such numbers to hear a Prot- 
estant. Romanism is rooted there far into the 
distant past. It has entwined its roots around and 
appropriated the institutions to which they found 

[46] 



RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS IN FRANCE 

the people wedded. For instance, the sarcophagus 
on the grounds of the mission which was an altar 
for human sacrifice by the Druid priests (How far 
back in the Dark Ages?) is now called by the 
Romish priests the bed of St. Peter. 

(Note. Upon reaching London, Secretary Franklin was 
pleased at discovering the intention of English Baptists to 
enlarge their efforts in Brittany, which is properly their 
field, if satisfactory arrangements can be made for the 
conduct of the work.) 



[47] 



VI 
To Brussels and Liege 

On Railway Train, in Belgium, 
April 12, 1919. 

I am returning now from a visit to two of the 
four Baptist churches in Belgium, having stopped 
in Brussels and Liege long enough to receive some 
impression of the work done in the two places by 
struggling bands of people. In all Belgium there 
are about one hundred and fifty members of the 
four Baptist churches. Perhaps the most surprising 
bit of information some of them received from me 
was my statement that in America there are six 
or seven million Baptists. Both groups seemed 
pleased at having an American visitor of their own 
faith. 

My train was late in reaching Brussels, but the 
people, not more than twenty-five in all, were wait- 
ing for me when, at 9.30 in the evening, I entered 
the small but strikingly bright, clean, and attrac- 
tive little room which will accommodate possibly 
seventy-five at one time. The hall is on a good 
street, is directly opposite one of the large public 
buildings of the city, and displays two open Bibles 

[48] 



TO BRUSSELS AND LIEGE 



in the front windows. The open Bible seems to be 
a badge of Protestantism in several sections of 
Europe. The general appearance of the place, with 
several rather choice pictures on the walls, sug- 
gests that some one with a sense of the fitness of 
things, even for a mission hall, has control. That 
person is a Mr. Hoffman, a Swiss Baptist who 
married an English woman and has been in busi- 
ness in Brussels for many years. A few friends 
in England have assisted him to meet the expense 
involved, which has amounted to about fifteen hun- 
dred francs per annum for the hall. Inasmuch 
as he conducts the services, there is not much more 
expense. The organization, whose name being 
translated means " Evangelical Church Known as 
Baptist," has no connection with any association 
or other denominational body. Its membership since 
the war numbers only twenty-three, but Mr. Hoff- 
man says that during the years of work in a very 
simple way as many as one hundred have been 
baptized there, and many others have accepted the 
evangelical message, although they did not break 
formally with the Church of Rome. 

I do not know of a land where the alliance be- 
tween Church and State is closer than in Belgium. 
Here not only the Roman Catholics, who constitute, 
in name at any rate, almost the entire population, 
receive support for churches and schools from the 
state, but the same kind of aid is given to the Re- 
formed Church and other Protestants if requested 



[49] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

by a congregation of required size. Recently a 
group which was described to me as " The Free 
Church of Scotland " applied for and received aid 
from the Government. Jews too are recognized in 
the distribution if they meet the requirements as to 
numbers. No Baptist church, however, contem- 
plates assistance even though its growth were to 
entitle it to a subsidy. But the entire Protestant 
constituency is small. 

The second church which I visited in Belgium 
was the one at Ougree, a suburb of Liege, with a 
population of sixteen thousand. Liege proper is 
a city of one hundred and seventy thousand peo- 
ple, and I was told that within a radius of about 
three miles there is a population of possibly four 
hundred thousand. The region is rich in coal, and 
Ougree is largely a mining-town. The Baptist 
church there owns its " temple," as the Protestant 
house of worship is often called in France and 
Belgium, which is a neat brick structure seating 
about one hundred and fifty people. The resident 
membership numbers forty-three since the war. 
Pastor Brogniez reports that in his twenty-five 
years in Ougree he has baptized about two hundred 
and fifty converts, which is a good record for an 
evangelical church in Belgium. I judge that most 
of the earnest souls constituting the little church 
are plain and poor, as seems to be true at Brussels. 
Nearly all of them in both places suffered much dur- 
ing the period of German occupation. 

[50] 



TO BRUSSELS AND LIEGE 



The first battle of the great war was fought near 
Liege, when Belgium with forty thousand troops, 
opposed one hundred and fifty thousand Germans, 
and retreated only after thirteen days of resistance. 
It is reported that the enemy's casualty list num- 
bered forty-two thousand. The first engagement 
occurred only a short distance from Ougree, and 
Pastor Brogniez and men in his congregation as- 
sisted in burying the dead. The young man who 
interpreted for me at Ougree, a Belgian soldier, 
participated in the first battle of the war, when he 
was made prisoner. After two years in Germany 
he escaped into Switzerland and very soon there- 
after was with the Belgian army again. His father, 
a non-combatant, was shot by the Germans in 1914, 
but none of the family ever knew why. 

Seventy-five people came out to meet me and to 
hear my words at the meeting in the temple, al- 
though the pastor had not been given long notice 
to arrange for a gathering at an odd hour in mid- 
week. One could hardly fail to experience unusual 
emotions in conveying greetings to such a people, 
in such a place. The illustration of David with his 
sling and stones going out to meet Goliath in his 
armor seemed to appeal to them, and they appeared 
heartened at the announcement of the world's ad- 
miration for a small nation that has become great 
through its stand against an enemy incomparably 
stronger than itself. Poor souls! Their suffering 
has been so intense that the masses in Belsfium do 



[51] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

not realize, I suspect, what their heroism saved for 
the world by holding back the Germans long enough 
for France and England to mobilize a part of their 
forces. Hunger gnawed at their vitals so sharply 
they could not think much about the larger mean- 
ing, for the world, of all their sufferings. 

Any one who spends a few days in large devas- 
tated areas of France and then goes to Belgium 
is likely to form an erroneous idea of the latter's 
suffering if he has no way of getting next to the 
plain people. Belgium's fields are green and most 
of her cities are standing, except in a small west- 
ern section, although many towns are injured, and 
just before the armistice factories and mines were 
damaged to the limit of German ingenuity. Bel- 
gium's suffering does not seem to the tourist as 
great as that of France. It was suffering of in- 
tense nature, however. In the homes where I was 
received stories were told me, in response to my 
questions, that all but made me feel I was doing 
wrong in eating much of the good food set before 
me, when the privations at those very tables until 
recently had been acute. At Ougree I asked two 
persons what the people lived on in those days of 
German occupation, when there was little food be- 
sides the half-pound of soggy brown stuff called 
bread (no one could tell me of just what it was 
made) that the Germans issued daily to each 
civilian. The reply in each case was " Rutabagas." 
Later I was told that sugar-beets were another 

[52] 



TO BRUSSELS AND LIEGE 



staple food in those days. It was particularly hard 
on persons with delicate stomachs who could not 
digest the thing called bread. The wife of the 
pastor told me that some of the people in the 
community cried with hunger while lying in their 
beds at night. The pastor told me of an old man 
returning him most profuse thanks for four pota- 
toes. He was in ecstasy at the prospect of such a 
feast. And as if it were not enough to make the 
children and the sick and the aged cry in the 
night, the Germans took the woolen mattresses from 
Belgium and sent them to Germany to make uni- 
forms for men who were killing Belgian boys. Mr. 
Hoffman told me of a poor old man in Brussels who 
said to him : " When I was hungry I could at least 
stay in bed and keep warm. Now they have taken 
my bed." These people were told to stuff bags 
with cut paper and sleep on them. The homes in 
all of Belgium that was under German control 
(and that was practically all of Belgium) were 
searched for articles of military value. Door-knobs 
were removed, fixtures of brass, copper, and nickel 
were taken, as were cooking utensils made of those 
metals. It didn't matter so greatly about the cook- 
ing utensils, for the poor people had precious little 
to cook, but it did tear their hearts to think that 
their possessions wer^ to be converted into shells 
with which to kill their own boys. All copper and 
nickel and silver coins were taken up and zinc and 
paper money was substituted. Certain taxes must 



[53] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

be paid in gold, althoug-h the amount might be small, 
and the change was given in paper. 

When I started for my room Thursday night 
Mrs. Hoffman remarked that I would find it rather 
bare. She explained the lack of curtains, saying 
that when she heard the Germans were about to 
take heavy goods of that sort to make clothing for 
the troops, she had them cut up and made into 
garments for the poor Belgians before the order 
was actually issued. She was on the point of hav- 
ing her carpets made into slippers for the same 
people, getting ahead of the Germans again, when 
the armistice was signed. Knowing that the Ger- 
mans were about to requisition the dogs, she had 
her own pet chloroformed. If subjects of Swit- 
zerland, a neutral country, were subjected to such 
treatment, the lot of the Belgians must have been 
severe indeed. 

In the worst days, food prices, for those who 
could buy, were fabulous. Some of the prices were 
approximately as follows : butter $4 per lb., sugar 
$1.25, beef $4, potatoes 40 or 45 cents, beans $1.20, 
wheat, to be ground in coffee-mills, $1.20. Note 
that these prices are given in dollars for English 
pounds, not in francs for kilos. The Germans were 
supposed to issue small rations of these articles at 
a fixed price, but for months at a time they were not 
issued at all. It furnished me a grain of comfort 
to know that a little of the money sent from Bos- 
ton for relief work during the war reached Mr. 

[54] 



TO BRUSSELS AND LIEGE 



Hoffman by way of Switzerland, who used it for 
the benefit of some of the people in the audiences 
I met. Had we only known the real conditions, 
we would have called on our people to do far more. 

The occupied area of France was treated much 
as Belgium was treated. The able-bodied men and 
even boys were sent to labor in Germany or to 
work in. the trenches from which the Germans fired 
upon the Belgians. Belgium's suffering as a whole 
was different from that whose marks one sees in 
northern France, but it must have been fully as 
severe, for added to the rest was the habit of the 
Germans to report exaggerated stories of their own 
victories and the defeat of the Allies. 

This report has been dashed off on a moving 
train. It is given largely to matters you may not 
have expected me to bring to your attention, and 
your acquaintance with conditions here may make 
unnecessary the recital of such details, but I hope it 
will help you to a somewhat clearer understanding 
of conditions where the suffering has been so acute. 

On my way north from Paris, through Albert 
and Arras to Lille, along the line where the Ger- 
mans fought so hard last year in an unsuccessful 
effort to take Amiens and other points and thus 
separate the British forces from the French, the 
train passed over new track in what looked like 
a dead land. Farther north the orchards were in 
bloom and the meadows were green, but here for 
mile after mile, and mile after mile, every tree was 



[55] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

stone-dead, so far as I could see, and most of the 
hedges were lifeless. In places almost nothing was 
green except new grass on the ridges between shell- 
holes. It gave me the impression of a wave of fire 
having rolled over the land. This was a part of 
the field known as the Somme. Thousands of 
wooden crosses tell the story of the many san- 
guinary battles fought on that field. 



[56 J 



VII 

Back Across the Path of the Hurricane 

Hotel Continental, Paris, 
April 17, 1 9 19. 

I have just completed a tour which included all 
the towns in the northern part of France where 
there are Baptist churches. While on this tour I 
made my headquarters at Valenciennes and Lille, 
using the railway or electric cars when possible to 
do so, and an automobile for points to which the rails 
have not yet been relaid. As yet the vast railway 
system of northern France is largely unrecon- 
structed, except for main trunk lines connecting 
principal centers. It will take much time to replace 
bridges and terminals and tracks where the Ger- 
mans blew them up. The hotel situation also is fre- 
quently difficult in this area of occupation by the 
Germans for more than four years, and prices are 
exorbitant even for these days in France. As a 
Frenchman said to me, there seems to be no price 
on anything, except for a few articles on which the 
Government is protecting the people. To charge 
all that conditions will permit appears to be the 
rule. 

[57] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

Valenciennes suffered greatly at the hands of the 
Germans when they were driven from the city in 
October, 1918, although most of the houses are 
standing. There are numerous ruins here and 
there, the coal-mines have been made useless for at 
least another year, and such utilities as telegraph, 
telephone, gas, and electricity are still unrestored. 
Railway stations have been improvised by the side 
of the ruins of large terminals, every manner of 
odd, old conveyance has been hunted up to take the 
place of the automobiles the Germans took away, 
and instead of baggage-delivery wagons there are 
boys with push-carts. The French are trying every- 
where to make a start toward the restoration of 
normal life, and the patience with which they begin 
the colossal task of reconstruction, with facilities 
largely destroyed throughout a great area, is in- 
spiring despite the pathos. 

At Anzin, a suburb of Valenciennes, there was 
a small Baptist church, but the war scattered the 
membership. Anzin was badly injured and it is 
hard to forecast how many of the members of the 
little church will reestablish their homes in that city. 
A small building, privately owned, was used as a 
house of worship. 

A Sunday afternoon was spent at Denain, a coal- 
mining center, seven miles from Valenciennes. The 
Germans needed coal, so the mines and the homes 
of the French miners were protected during the 
period of occupation. However, when the Ger- 

[58] 



THE PATH OF THE HURRICANE 

mans retreated in 1918 everything was done to ruin 
the mines that could be done before the city was 
evacuated. Here Pastor Philemon Vincent, of the 
Avenue du Maine Church, Paris, and Private Robert 
Farelly, of the French Army and son of the pastor 
at Denain, joined me. Pastor Vincent, who is an 
able man, is the president of the Franco-Beige As- 
sociation and as such accompanied me for several 
days. He is an eloquent preacher and is repre- 
sented to me as a scholarly man. His church is 
entirely self-supporting. Mr. Farelly, a nephew of 
Pastor Vincent, who had completed one year's study 
at Rochester Theological Seminary when he was 
called to the colors in 1914, served as my interpreter 
in northern France. Two days earlier my inter- 
preter had been a Belgian soldier. 

The church at Denain numbered one hundred be- 
fore the war. Forty of the members joined the 
colors. Twelve of them were killed. As many 
as twelve families left during the war. Young men 
were sent to the front by the Germans to work in 
the trenches. A young man who was in the audi- 
ence Sunday was starved into submission. For 
four days he refused to handle munitions that were 
being used to kill the French, but on the fifth day 
the pangs of hunger caused him to submit. I do 
not recall seeing anywhere more crape than was 
worn by the women in this audience of one hun- 
dred at Denain. One woman had lost her husband 
and two sons in the war. The people there suffered 

[59] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

in many ways. A sympathetic response was in their 
faces when I gave them a French translation of a 
Httle poem published in a Boston paper on Novem- 
ber 12, 191 8, a part of which is as follows : 

The dawn at last has broken, 

And the war-worn people see 
The vision of the blessed peace 

That comes with victory. 

You can hear the glad hosannas 

From out the rescued sod, 
And the right still holds the balance 

In the sacred scales of God. 

I have wondered sometimes how the people in the 
occupied areas stood the four years of humiliation, 
anxiety, and suffering of body and mind, and re- 
tained their sanity. At Denain I had confirmation 
of the stories that reached us of the conduct of the 
Germans. Mrs. Farelly's mother at eighty-four 
years of age was compelled to travel three days 
and nights in January in a compartment of a railway- 
carriage that was unheated and with a window- 
pane broken out. Persons under sixteen or over 
sixty years of age were permitted to travel to 
France by way of Switzerland. 

Other fields visited this week were Bruay, Be- 
thune, Rochelle, Roubaix, Croix, and Lens. The 
rain came down so heavily we could not secure 
transportation to Bruay for the meeting on Mon- 
day evening, where the people packed the small 

[60] 



THE PATH OF THE HURRICANE 

auditorium before they learned that neither by train 
nor automobile could we reach them. The next day 
we visited the neat building in the large coal-field, 
whose injury from shell-fire had been repaired. The 
pastor is now working in the mines and preaching 
Sundays. At Bethune the small " temple " has been 
closed -ever since it was injured by shell-fire in 1916. 
The center of Bethune was completely demolished, 
and a railway has been constructed in the streets 
to remove the debris. As we were walking through 
the ruins a citizen remarked, " Just here seven- 
teen non-combatants were found dead." 

A.t Lens Pastor Farelly and his son, who had 
once spent eight years there and had directed the 
erection of " temple " and manse, could find noth- 
ing of the old place except two cellars filled with 
brick and broken timbers. All that day, as our 
automobile covered nearly one hundred and fifty 
miles, it was largely the same story of desolation. 
These destroyed towns in France are usually worse 
than destroyed. It would be better if there were 
nothing but meadows. Usually thousands of tons 
of debris must be carted off and the remaining 
chimneys must be toppled over and removed before 
any start can be made toward reconstruction. 

I have tried in other letters to give you some 
idea of the devastated regions, but I have attempted 
the impossible. One must see it to realize the ex- 
tent and completeness of the destruction. In many 
places it is almost literally true that not one stone 

[61] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

is left on another, and nothing whatever can be 
found that is not broken. After looking over Lens 
I saw a pump amid the ruins, which at a distance 
appeared to be the only unbroken thing in the city — 
what was once a city. When I examined it I found 
it was like everything else in Lens and in hundreds 
of other places — ruined. But it is not merely the 
cities. The earth is turned over, and over again, 
in some of these areas. Near La Bassee the fields 
are blown into such billows that one received the 
impression of a gale at sea. To make the sugges- 
tion all the more striking, the bleached wreck of 
an airplane was much like a white gull that had 
fallen before the storm. These fields are danger- 
spots too. The French soldier who interpreted for 
me had heard that in four months possibly as many 
as five hundred civilians had been killed in handling 
the unexploded ammunition lying on the fields and 
in the trenches. One wishes he could compel the 
Germans to come and dig out all the shells that 
are hidden in the fields. Factories too have been 
annihilated, and it is estimated that around Lens 
six years will be required before the normal output 
of the mines can be restored. The mines have been 
wrecked and the machinery smashed after the shaft- 
houses were burned. An industrial commission 
from America told me they had found the ma- 
chinery in a hundred factories in one small city 
completely demolished. They received the impres- 
sion that the Germans, upon suffering military de- 

[62] 




In the Town of Chateau Thierry 







Where the Face of the Earth Has Been Changed 



THE PATH OF THE HURRICANE 

feat, did all they could in many towns to destroy 
industrial activity (or competition) for years to 
come. 

As we traveled through the wide area of devasta- 
tion Pastor Vincent said slowly something like this, 
which I jotted down as we rode along: " This is the 
two hundredth time in history that the Germans 
have invaded France. They will come again ! 
They will come again! They will come again, un- 
less they are met with force on the Rhine. They 
will come again ! They will come again ! Our 
children's children will fight again unless the 
League of Nations provides forces to control them. 
In Germany war is a chief industry." Pastor Vin- 
cent has reason to feel strongly. His two sons 
gave their lives in the war, one at Ypres and the 
other not far from Lens. When we came to a group 
of graves near the German line in front of Lens we 
read in French, " In Flanders Fields," and the 
American response to the Canadians' appeal to 
" take up the quarrel with the foe ". . . 

If ye break faith with us who die, 
We shall not sleep. 

Leaving the graves, we were soon on the Hinden- 
burg Line whose reenforced concrete defenses, in- 
cluding the machine-gun " pill-boxes " and the dug- 
outs of the same material, appeared for a long 
time to make the German position impregnable. 
We did not tarry long, for the paths were too often 

[63] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

bestrewn with unexploded grenades and other mis- 
siles. It is not yet a land for tourists. The British 
are working hard to fill the trenches in their area, 
pull up the thousands of miles of barbed-wire 
hedges, and gather the shells into dumps for ex- 
plosion. Already some of the crooked trenches 
filled with new earth resemble the trails of serpents 
over the land. 

The trenches can be filled in a year or so, but it 
will be many years before all the cities can be re- 
built. Indeed, some of them will never be rebuilt. 
In most cases little will be done this year except 
to make a beginning. Still it will come. In Lens 
not a shelter of any kind was left, and six months 
after the war only about one hundred people are 
reported to have returned to erect " shacks " of 
rusty sheet-iron and old boards, where thirty thou- 
sand people enjoyed life in 1914. Over one such 
" shack," where a lunch-counter has been opened, 
was the last thing I saw in Lens as we headed 
north for Roubaix and Croix. It was a sign on a 
freshly painted blue board : " A la Renaissance de 
la France." When people can come back to heaps 
of ashes and dust and there consecrate themselves 
to the rebirth of their country, let no one despair. 

What we have seen these days will help to pre- 
pare us for the serious work in the several con- 
ferences in Paris next week. I have noticed that 
in most cases a Protestant church in France is 
known merely as &glise Evangelique, " Evangelical 

[64] 



THE PATH OF THE HURRICANE 

Church." That is the name which appears over 
the doorway, and usually there is no denominational 
adjective. The distinctive mark of a Protestant 
church here is not that it is Methodist or Presby- 
terian or Baptist, but that it is evangelical. This 
is significant, and it indicates the line of cleavage 
in the mind of the populace. Will the efforts now 
proposed by Americans strengthen the emphasis on 
evangelical, or will they introduce new lines of 
division in the popular conception of Protestant 
Christianity ? 



[65] 



VIII 

The Extent of the Devastation 

Major George B. Ford, a city- and town-plan- 
ning engineer, has spent much time in France, first 
as a member of the American Industrial Commis- 
sion and later as a director of the Bureau of Re- 
construction and Relief of the Red Cross. He has 
published the following estimates of the extent of 
the injuries inflicted upon the portions of France 
that were exposed to the fury of the war : 

The devastated area of France covers approxi- 
mately 6,000 square miles. In that region 200,000 
buildings were completely destroyed and 250,000 
more were damaged. It is estimated that the value 
of the buildings totally destroyed alone is $5,000,- 
000,000. There is an additional loss of public works 
estimated at $4,000,000,000. 

The injury to farm lands and agricultural imple- 
ments is $2,000,000,000. The war rendered 3,000,- 
000 acres useless for cultivation. Two hundred 
and fifty thousand farms were situated in the devas- 
tated area. The French Government calculates that 
the following agricultural implements will have to 
be supplied to the farmers : 

[66] 



THE EXTENT OF THE DEVASTATION 

51,000 side-hill plows, 

33,000 plain plows, 

56,000 cultivators, 

88,000 harrows, 

16,000 beet extractors, 

36,000 seed-drills, 

18,000 horse-rakes, 
-53,000 root-cutters, 

30,000 mowing-machines, 
115,000 farm wagons, 

50,000 rollers, 

48,000 hoes, 

13,000 fertilizer-spreaders, 

21,000 winno wing-machines, 

32,000 reapers and binders. 

Nine hundred thousand cattle were carried into 
Germany. Soon after the war it was almost impos- 
sible to find a horse or a cow or an ox, or any 
other domestic animal, in the area that had been 
occupied by the Germans. 

Industrially France is terribly crippled. Before 
the war 22,000,000 tons of iron ore were produced 
in France, over half of which came from the basins 
occupied for four years by the Germans. Seven- 
tenths of the coal supply of France had come from 
the basins that were in the hands of the enemy. 

Machinery in thousands of factories was broken 
to pieces, if it was not carried into Germany, and 
will have to be replaced before France can develop 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

her industries in the devastated areas. In the tex- 
tile industry of France there were 7,500,000 cotton 
spindles, 4,500,000 of which were destroyed or car- 
ried into Germany. Out of 550,000 linen spindles 
in the devastated regions, 500,000 were destroyed or 
taken to Germany. 

Before the war France had 210 sugar refineries, 
140 of which were in the invaded region. The 
machinery in all of the 140 was smashed or re- 
moved, and the same is true of electrical power 
companies, machine-shops, and foundries. 

It is estimated that the Germans destroyed 
1,000,000 acres of forest land. The total damage 
in the north of France, including buildings, furni- 
ture, industries, public works, and farms, is esti- 
mated at about $15,000,000,000. Then there is the 
damage to the soil. For mile after mile the traveler 
crosses fields that have been turned over by shell- 
fire, and gashed with rows of deep dugouts and 
networks of trenches. Often the top soil has been 
turned under, and there is nothing in sight but a 
chalky clay which will not produce a harvest. 
There are 250,000 acres of land in such condition, 
on which forests must be planted, in the hope that 
in half a century, or possibly much longer, a leaf- 
mold will produce a new humus. Many boat- 
loads of small trees are being sent from the United 
States to reforest fields in France. Besides the 
land that is hopelessly beyond the state of cultiva- 
tion in the near future, there are about 2,000,000 

[68] 







HHI^^HHHIHHH^^^ 






I^P^^^^^^^^fia 



The Town of Vaux, in the Chateau Thierry Region 




A Common Sight 
Many Forests Were Completely Destroyed 



THE EXTENT OF THE DEVASTATION 

acres which must be salvaged, leveled, and fertilized 
before any crops can be planted. 

Both the American and French armies during 
the war cut large quantities of wood for their own 
use. Lumber will be given to France in time in 
return for the trees that were cut down by the 
Americans and the French, but the deliveries can- 
not be accomplished fast enough to cover the present 
emergency. It is expected too that large quan- 
tities will be brought from Germany. Meanwhile 
building is fearfully expensive. Farm barracks, 
consisting of two rooms and a shed, cost about $900. 

Major Ford says : " There are in all about sixty 
relief units working in the devastated territory, 
most of which are wholly or partly supported by 
American funds. There is room for all of them." 



[69] 



IX 

Glimpses of American Battle-fields 

April 1 8. 

After nearly five weeks of close application to 
the task that brought me here, I was glad to avail 
myself of an opportunity to be the guest of the 
Visitors Bureau of the American Army for two 
days, before going into the formal conferences next 
week which are to conclude my work in France. 
Bright and early this morning an American officer 
was at my hotel in Paris with an army automobile 
to take several visitors to the railway station, where 
we found a compartment reserved for us on the 
express-train that swept quickly up the valley of 
the Marne and past many of the towns and cities 
whose names we heard often during the war. 

Our party consisted of two members of an In- 
dustrial Commission from the United States, the 
commercial attache of the American Embassy at 
Paris, and myself. I soon discovered that my com- 
panions on the tour are wide-awake, congenial gen- 
tlemen. In the same compartment on the train 
were two mature women, wearing the " Y " uni- 
form. They were just back from London, where 

[70] 



GLIMPSES OF AMERICAN BATTLE-FIELDS 

their special work was on the streets at night, sepa- 
rating American soldiers from spiders that weave 
webs of several sorts. 

At Bar-le-Duc, a town known to most of the 
American soldiers who were actually engaged in 
the combat, we were met at noon by Captain J. 
Andre Fouilhaux, of Portland, Oregon, who is our 
escort for the two-days' tour of the St. Mihiel 
salient, the Verdun front, and the Argonne Forest. 
Captain Fouilhaux was born and reared in France, 
but is now an American citizen, and served on some 
of the very fields we are visiting. Quickly we were 
speeding northeastward, in a heavy army automo- 
bile, over roads that a few months ago were con- 
gested with troops, trucks, and artillery. At numer- 
ous points along the way the movements of the 
army had been concealed from the view of- the 
enemy by the use of many miles of artificial hedges, 
constructed of boughs, or by camouflaged screens. 
And the camouflage along many miles of roadway 
was but a small part of the gigantic task of prepar- 
ing to move an army. How little have we realized 
the colossal character of the preparations to de- 
feat the Hun. 

Our first stop was in the little town of St. Mihiel, 
v/hich was almost at the southwestern tip of the 
salient that the Germans drove into the French lines 
in 1914, and which had remained like a thorn in the 
flesh of France for four years, when in September, 
1918, the Americans, assisted by the French army, 

[71] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

straightened the Hue. The town of St. Mihiel 
was well within the Grerman lines for four years, and 
the artillery on such high points as Montsec ap- 
peared to command the situation. The permanent 
character of the cemetery the Germans made for 
their soldier dead and the inscriptions on the grave- 
stones cause a visitor to wonder if they were not 
preparing to hold that part of France always as an 
addition to Lorraine, which lies a few miles east- 
ward. The inscriptions on the gravestones are 
interesting, and they reveal the feelings of the Ger- 
mans for their sons who fell in battle : " For Father- 
land"; "Tranquil Rest"; "Rest in Peace." This 
inscription was on perhaps half the gravestones, 
" Here rests in God." Several others I copied : 
" For Germany's honor, our brave companions suf- 
fered the heroes' death " ; " He fell for the Father- 
land " ; " You died in true fulfilment of your duty " ; 
" Your dear memory remains holy and unforget- 
table in our minds " ; " In deep pain, your parents 
and sisters." 

One corner of the cemetery had been set apart 
for the French soldiers who fell in St. Mihiel. And 
it must be said to the credit of the Germans that 
a rather handsome monument had been erected 
near the graves of the French. 

It was interesting to visit the principal points 
on the field of what was intended by General Persh- 
ing to be the scene of the first American offensive. 
Unanticipated developments called our soldiers to 

[72] 



GLIMPSES OF AMERICAN BATTLE-FIELDS 

participate in a stirring way at the Chateau-Thierry 
front, in cooperation with the French, and there 
had been such engagements as the one at Cantigny, 
but the first American offensive, deliberately planned 
as such, was on the St. Mihiel field, where 550,000 
Americans were engaged in battle and our artillery 
fired more than 1,000,000 shells in four hours. The 
magnitude of the engagement may be appreciated 
when it is remembered that only about 100,000 sol- 
diers fought on the Northern side in the battle of 
Gettysburg. The strength of the German position 
around St. Mihiel consisted not merely in the occu- 
pation of the high elevations, such as Montsec. 
The permanent living quarters which the German 
officers and soldiers had dug for themselves in the 
stony and precipitous hillsides that were protected 
from the fire of the Allies, gave them an added 
sense of security. These dugouts usually consisted 
of a small front living-room, furnished with stove, 
tables, chairs, and smaller comforts, while perma- 
nent bunks or beds filled the chambers still further 
underground. In front of some of the officers' 
quarters, there was a rather ornate veranda built 
of stone taken from the hillside. Altogether the 
picture made one think of the homes of the cliff- 
dwellers in Arizona and Colorado. 

Our route took us along the southern line of 
what had been the St. Mihiel sector, through Apre- 
mont, Bouconville, Rambucourt, Beaumont, Flirey, 
Limey, and other towns. No, our route took us 

[73] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

where once there were towns bearing these names, 
but where today there is httle left except silent 
ruins, miles of trenches and dugouts, thickets of 
barbed wire, and camouflaged artillery emplace- 
ments. The territory on which many of the Amer- 
ican soldiers had their first baptism of fire is much 
like other battle-fields, although the engagement 
here was of such short duration that the land has 
not been turned over and over again as is true at 
numerous other points. But each field has its own 
interesting marks. Here for instance, we could see 
to the north the " bird nests " in the tops of high 
trees, which were concealed by the foliage in Sep- 
tember, and made excellent observation posts, or 
bases for sharpshooters. On the American side a 
hollow armored stump of a fallen tree, with an un- 
derground entrance, served a similar purpose. This 
was the line on which our men faced the Germans 
on September 12, 191 8. Three days later that par- 
ticular thorn in the side of France had been re- 
moved, and the line was straightened. Leaving the 
south line of the sector, we swung north across the 
field over which our men had made such rapid ad- 
vance on September 12. I heard more than one 
soldier say that the Germans retreated so rapidly 
in the St. Mihiel salient that the American artillery 
could not be brought up fast enough to keep up 
with the Germans; that when the guns would be 
placed, often it was found that the Germans were 
out of range. Now this must not be taken to mean 

[74] 



GLIMPSES OF AMERICAN BATTLE-FIELDS 

that the Germans were not strongly fortified. As 
we swung north, we crossed line after line of Ger- 
man " pill-boxes." The " pill-box," every one 
knows, was a heavy reenforced concrete shelter for 
a machine-gun. The walls were several feet thick, 
with horizontal slits on three sides of the little fort, 
through which machine-gunners could pour several 
hundred shots per minute upon advancing infantry. 
These machine-gun fortifications were so placed 
that if the infantry tried to flank one of them they 
ran squarely into the face of another. And there 
was more than one line of the " pill-boxes." It 
appeared that several lines of such fortifications 
had been constructed for use by the Germans, 
should they be compelled to retreat from one to an- 
other. With such lines of fortifications, it would 
appear as if one German might have held ten men 
on the other side. Nor must it be assumed that the 
morale of the German soldiers was so low that they 
gladly retreated. Our men paid dearly for their 
advance in the St. Mihiel salient. 

Nearly all the villages were destroyed, and the 
land was swept bare. Battle-fields of France are 
not like those of the Civil War in the United States. 
In France about six thousand square miles of terri- 
tory has been left desolate, with here and there 
parts of towns or villages undestroyed. Over much 
of it the signs of residence have been so completely 
removed that one almost forgets that people ever 
lived there. This vast waste looks as if a great 

[75] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

hurricane had swept over it. The only human touch 
to the picture on many fields is the silent wooden 
crosses. In truth this great gash across the face 
of France is civilization's Via Dolorosa. 

We found thousands of negro troops engaged in 
reconstructing the roads of the destroyed country 
and collecting the " duds," as one of the negroes 
called the tons of unexploded shells on all the 
fields. This negro trooper came up and, after giv- 
ing Captain Fouilhaux a snappy salute, said : " The 
captain says you had better move on. We are go- 
ing to explode a pile of duds." As we approached 
Thiaucourt we saw negro soldiers searching the fields 
over which the Forty-second, the Eighty-ninth, the 
Second, and the Fifth divisions of our Army fought 
on September 12. They were locating the graves 
of the Americans who fell on that day of terrific 
fighting, and who were buried quickly just where 
they fell — in shell-holes, perhaps. From Septem- 
ber until April the bodies had been lying there, 
with khaki as their only shroud, and now they were 
being exhumed for reinterment in the large Amer- 
ican military cemetery at Thiaucourt. It was rather 
singular that in the late afternoon of Good Friday 
we should witness such a scene. Were we not look- 
ing on a slope of humanity's Golgotha while the 
instruments of death and even the blood-spots were 
still visible ? Squads of men in khaki were digging 
in the earth, and what they found they were rolling 
in large cloths and depositing in plain wooden boxes 

[76] 







^^B 




^^^^^H 





The Town of Vaux, in the Chateau Thierry Region 




.1 f 



i i ! 





A Common Sight 
Many Forests Were Completely Destroyed 



GLIMPSES OF AMERICAN BATTLE-FIELDS 

that were piled on large motor-trucks. It was a 
solemn scene, but ten minutes later the scene was 
still more solemn. 

Coming to what had been the town of Thiaucourt, 
we discovered that thousands of new graves were 
being made, and the colored troops were coming 
from the fields with those plain wooden boxes, 
whicTi were opened again, when each body was 
identified. The sight was gruesome beyond all de- 
scription, and it is not proper to try to relate here 
all the details. White officers, wearing rubber 
gloves, sought first to establish the identity of each 
body by looking for the tag worn about the neck. 
If the tag was not there the pockets were searched 
for something to identify the soldier, or perhaps 
the tag itself would be found somewhere else on the 
person. Then trinkets would be found to be sent 
back to the families in America, after being prop- 
erly sterilized. While we were there they found on 
the body of one soldier a locket, suspended to a 
chain, and containing a girl's picture and a lock of 
hair. On the same body was found a gold watch 
and a fountain-pen. On another was what they 
pronounced an excellent diary that the soldier had 
kept right up to the day of his death. One did not 
care to look long on such a scene, and we wondered 
how the soldiers engaged in such a task could go 
through with their work week after week. 

Lieutenant Keating, of Erie, Pa., was in charge 
of the work at the cemetery. I said to him : " Lieu- 

[77] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

tenant, how do you ever stand this work? Isn't it 
harder than going over the top ? " He replied : " I 
have been over the top three times; that was mo- 
mentary. This work here has been going on since 
January." And then with the soldier's spirit, as if 
to catch himself, he said : " But we get our reward. 
There is great satisfaction in being able to identify 
a body which had not been identified before, and to 
write a mother or a father or a sister in America 
that the grave is now properly marked." " It is a 
great satisfaction too," he added, " to be able to 
send back to the people at home something to keep, 
like the locket that we found since you came, or 
the watch, or the diary." He told me also that he 
believed ninety-eight out of every hundred of the 
American dead in the St. Mihiel salient would be 
identified. 

As we were about to board our car for Moraigne 
Farm, where we were to spend the night, two or 
three miles to the south of us there shot up into 
the heavens a great volume of smoke which looked 
like a geyser a thousand feet in height, and a mo- 
ment later there was a terrific report. The great 
pile of " duds " of which the negro had warned us 
had been exploded. Following the explosion, the 
six men in our automobile sat in silence for mile 
after mile. But it was not the noise we had just 
heard that made us silent. Evidently every one 
had been deeply impressed by what we had just seen 
on the fields of France in the soft light of the late 

[78] 



GLIMPSES OF AMERICAN BATTLE-FIELDS 

afternoon of Good Friday. After the rapid fire of 
conversation that had gone on ever since we left 
Paris in the early morning, the absolute silence was 
significant. At last one of the members of the 
Industrial Commission spoke up : " And they were 
doing it in such a beautiful spirit." Clearly, all of 
us had been thinking of the same thing. Perhaps 
I may be forgiven for attempting to indicate briefly 
my own feelings. At the moment when I looked on 
the blackened bodies of our noble soldiers, first I 
thought : " And these are men who left America in 
a blaze of glory. Surely some good must come 
from such a sacrifice. What will it be?" Some- 
how (I hardly know why) there then flashed into 
my soul this question, " In the light of what these 
men passed through, what mean some of the eccle- 
siastical discussions that seem to occupy the thought 
of many people ? " The question lingered with me 
during the period of silence as we continued north- 
ward. Such reflections as these came : " It is Good 
Friday, and here we are on the Calvary of the Na- 
tions ! How can we avoid another such conflict ? 
There is no hope except as men catch the spirit 
of Christ on Calvary. Henry Watterson was right 
when he said that democracy is but a side issue; 
that Christianity is the bed-rock of civilization." 
Again I reflected, " But something more vital than 
our conventional Christianity will be required to 
prevent the recurrence of such a conflict as that 
through which we have been passing." Once more 

[79] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 



I vowed to try to stand for reality in religion, 
and agair 
liver us? 



and against formal ecclesiasticism. Who shall de- 



April 19. 

After the visit to the St. Mihiel salient the night 
was spent at Moraigne Farm, which for four years 
and more was a German army corps headquarters. 
The Kaiser is supposed to have spent some time at 
this point while the war was in progress. Today 
the old French chateau is being used by the Amer- 
ican Army as a stopping-place for the guests of its 
Visitors Bureau, and perhaps last night some of 
us slept in the bed once occupied by the Kaiser. 
The place still bears many placards in the German 
language and other marks of occupation by the 
enemy. A dummy German tank, a German aero- 
plane, and several German guns in the front yard 
are among the numerous trophies that have been 
brought in from the fields. In one of the rooms 
may be found a very full collection of the many dif- 
ferent kinds of weapons used in the war by the sev- 
eral armies. The farm is some miles north of the 
line on which the Germans were making their last 
stand when the armistice was signed, and in con- 
sequence the surrounding country has not been shot 
to pieces. 

We were off early in the morning for the ride to 
Verdun and across the Meuse-Argonne field. Most 
of the main thoroughfares are now in good repair, 

[80] 



GLIMPSES OF AMERICAN BATTLE-FIELDS 

hilt it has taken much work to fill in the craters 
where mines beneath the road-bed were exploded to 
hinder the advance of troops. Some of these roads 
had been camouflaged, on both sides and overhead 
as well, so that an army might be moved in daylight 
under the cover of what would appear from the 
air to be a stretch of luxuriant foliage. 

It is futile to attempt to describe conditions 
around Verdun, where, we were told, five hundred 
thousand men were killed outright, not to mention 
the larger number who were wounded. The uptorn 
earth for miles around defies description. We 
caught our first glimpse of the famous city as we 
came over a high ridge when the sun was imme- 
diately behind us and throwing its bright light on 
the shattered town in the distance. From the hill- 
top we could look down upon the serpentine trenches 
that zigzagged their ways across the fields and up 
the steep hillsides. To our right were the famous 
forts, which were the scenes of much terrific combat. 
These fortified hills, large enough to be called 
mountains, are now entirely barren and apparently 
as lifeless as heaps of ashes. While the town of 
Verdun was not completely destroyed, it was so 
badly shelled as to make the destruction a bit more 
appalling than if it were so leveled that no human 
beings could find shelter there. And the earth for 
miles around looks as if a rain of shells and gas and 
fire had fallen from out of the heavens — or better, 
as if there had been upheavals out of hell. Here 

[8i] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

too silence was reigning. There was no noise of 
machinery, no smoke from factory chimneys, and 
little to disturb the quiet of the springtime morning, 
except the " honk-honk " of the army automobiles. 

Few names will live in history like that of Ver- 
dun. First and last, about seven-tenths of the en- 
tire French army passed through that point of the 
front. Its fall would have had a disastrous effect 
upon the morale of the French people, for it was 
the strongest of all of their fortified cities. Had 
Verdun fallen, the French nation might fairly have 
believed the German armies completely invincible. 
Captain Fouilhaux secured permission for us to 
visit the underground citadel. In 1734 the French 
began to construct the subterranean quarters with 
stone floors, walls, and ceiling, to accommodate 
twenty-eight thousand soldiers at one time, as a de- 
fensive measure against Germany. That citadel, 
with nearly five miles of stone galleries, was com- 
pleted in 1814. The Germans knew its strength, 
and they knew as well that if it could be taken, all 
France would be made to tremble. Had there been 
no such citadel, probably Verdun would have fallen. 
From the underground barracks, about fifteen miles 
of tunnels were dug in 1915 and 1916 to the forts 
outside the city, in order to furnish the heavy artil- 
lery with supplies. 

Coming up out of the citadel, which is ninety 
steps below the surface of the city, one finds a large 
Y. M. C. A. hut, where four American girls are on 

[ 82 ] 



GLIMPSES OF AMERICAN BATTLE-FIELDS 

active duty and working for the hundreds of men, 
with apparently as much zeal as if the war were 
still in progress. Close by the " Y " is the famous 
cathedral of Verdun, where soldiers of several na- 
tions gathered on the morning of November ii, 
when it was known that the armistice had been 
signed. There is a good story going the rounds 
regarding that particular moment, which is worth 
repeating, especially since it has been confirmed to 
me by a most reliable person. 

A most terrific bombardment was in progress on 
the morning of the armistice, and just before eleven 
o'clock, the story goes, it seemed as if both armies 
were trying to fire all their shells. At eleven o'clock 
sharp the bombardment ceased, and, strange to say, 
once more there was absolute silence around Ver- 
dun. Soldiers who were free to do so rushed to 
the cathedral, and those who knew English began 
to sing with one accord, " Praise God from whom 
all blessings flow." Almost instinctively the men of 
several nations, crowding the building, fell upon 
their knees. The few English who were there, were 
kneeling with their hands clasped and their up- 
turned faces catching the light through the broken 
roof of the old cathedral. American soldiers 
kneeled with heads bowed low. French soldiers 
crossed themselves devoutly. Algerian soldiers, 
true to the Mohammedan practice, beat their heads 
against the stone floor. With all the variations, 
there was one central purpose and desire — to thank 

[83] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

the Eternal for the victory that had come. They 
all believed in God. 

Leaving Verdun, we must have traveled twenty 
or twenty-five miles without seeing a place where 
civilians lived. If there were buildings at all, they 
were barracks for troops or camps for prisoners. 
When we reached the top of hill 304, we stood 
where the hurricane had reached its height, where 
every inch of ground had been contested, and where 
it seemed impossible to find a square foot of earth 
that had not been blasted by shell-fire. Everywhere 
it was the same story of absolute ruin and silence. 
At one point there was a sign-board bearing the 
name of the village which had once existed. There 
was little else to identify the spot. 

Montfaucon was the town where the Crown 
Prince of Germany had his chief observation post 
back of the Verdun line, during those years when he 
was trying to build a pyramid of shells so high that 
he could catch a sight of the city his guns were 
storming. Montfaucon is completely ruined, with 
the exception of one large house. Inside that house 
there had been constructed for the Crown Prince a 
heavy concrete tower, from the top of which he 
could look in every direction for eight or ten miles. 
Concrete walls a few feet in front of the tower 
furnished additional protection, and it is said that 
the Crown Prince, sitting in the cellar, used a peri- 
scope to enable him in still greater safety to ob- 
serve the movements of his army. His personal 

[84] 



GLIMPSES OF AMERICAN BATTLE-FIELDS 

safety seemed important ! But the American 
" doughboy " took the measure of the Crown Prince, 
and upon reaching the old house, the visitor is 
amazed to find our soldiers' names and addresses 
written over its walls. From the road in front of 
the house I picked up many American cartridges. 
The hills to the east and to the west are not marked 
with trenches, for the American soldiers fighting 
there did not have time to dig themselves in. When 
the Meuse-Argonne campaign first opened and the 
Germans had started to retreat, the doughboys found 
time merely to dig " fox-holes " for themselves as a 
measure of protection from the flying shells. 

The greatest of all the American campaigns was 
that known as the Meuse-Argonne. For a long 
time Marshal Foch had desired to move toward 
Sedan and capture the four-track railway, which 
constituted Germany's chief line of communication 
with her base of supplies and almost paralleled the 
western front. Marshal Foch believed that if this 
railroad could be destroyed Germany's main military 
nerve would be cut, but after four years of fighting 
the French army alone was not prepared for the 
sheer recklessness and audacity and sacrifice of men 
required to break the German line in the Argonne 
Forest, while holding the German troops at numer- 
ous other points. For four years the Germans 
had been strongly fortified in that densely wooded 
region, that is broken by deep ravines and marshes. 
I saw no battle-field that seemed to offer greater 

[85] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

difficulties to the invading force. One would think 
that it would have been impossible to drive the 
Germans from such a stronghold. But here again, 
audacity, and the spirit of crusaders, and the 
strength of numbers, won the day. 

The first success of the American troops in the 
Argonne Forest was due largely to the element of 
surprise in the attack. For four years the French 
had held the line which had been practically station- 
ary since 1914. After the St, Mihiel salient was 
wiped out, the Germans, it is believed, expected the 
Americans to make a further attack in that general 
region. But in a short time hundreds of thousands 
of troops were taken by night from the St. Mihiel 
field to the Argonne front and were all but hidden 
there. Thus, by the night of September 26, an 
American army of 1,200,000 men, including all the 
supporting forces as well as the combat troops, was 
ready for the Meuse-Argonne campaign. There 
were several thousand pieces of artillery in the line 
which was fifteen miles long. The guns stood al- 
most hub-to-hub, we were told, when the barrage 
was ordered to begin at 1.30 o'clock at night. The 
American soldiers occupied the front-line trenches 
just before midnight, relieving^ the French, who 
quietly went to the rear. The thunderous barrage 
from the guns lasted for several hours, and just 
before daybreak the American forces went over the 
top. They went in wave after wave, in such irre- 
sistible numbers that they overwhelmed the Ger- 

[86] 



GLIMPSES OF AMERICAN BATTLE-FIELDS 

mans. Steadily, although slowly, after the first few 
days of fighting, the Germans were driven north, 
and by November 7 the American artillery com- 
manded Germany's four-track railway, which con- 
stituted her chief dependence in supplying her 
armJes. At the same time the French and the 
British were advancing all along the northwestern 
sectors. On November 11 the war was practically 
over. From a military standpoint this was Amer- 
ica's greatest contribution. 

For possibly twenty miles we were riding through 
the Argonne Forest today. For the most part the 
woods are dense. In one of the densest portions 
we stopped to walk where the automobile could not 
go, and coming to a deep ravine we found rows 
of dugouts in which German officers had lived for 
several years with a degree of comfort. One of 
them had been occupied by the Crown Prince of 
Bavaria. In both his bedroom and his bathroom I 
picked up American cartridges. Cartridges I 
found too, scattered through the forest, as well as 
gas-masks, helmets, smokeless powder, cases of 
shells, cooking utensils, and empty tin cans around 
the ashes of campfires. Here also the sheer reck- 
lessness of our men, who were not tired from years 
of warfare and who had not learned to conserve 
their man-power, proved to be real strategy. But 
it should not be thought that the Germans were 
weak along the Argonne line, for forty German 
divisions were thrown against our troops. 

[87] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

Our automobile dashed suddenly out of the forest 
to what had been the left end of the American line, 
and we turned once more toward Bar-le-Duc. Al- 
most instantly we were in a different world, back 
where the tides of battle had not been running; 
back where there were smiling farms and where the 
trees and flowers had not been torn by shot and 
shell. Our last stop for the day was at an Amer- 
ican cemetery containing possibly five hundred 
graves of our own men who were wounded at the 
front and died at the hospital close by their place 
of burial. Before midnight we were back in Paris. 
A few hours later it was Easter morn, and Christen- 
dom was thinking of resurrection and life. 



[88] 



X 

America's Part in the War 

No' one would claim that America's sacrifice was 
comparable in volume with that of any one of sev- 
eral other nations engaged in the great conflict. 
America's contribution, however, came at a time 
when the issue seemed to be in the balance, and 
when the pound thrown into the scales on the right 
side assured victory for the forces of democracy. 
The figures given here are not presented with any 
thought that we have whereof to boast, but rather 
to prove what the American people can accomplish 
when they gird themselves for a specific task. 

The War Department of the United States Gov- 
ernment has published the following table, which 
summarizes America's participation in the war: 

Total armed forces, including Army, 

Navy, Marine Corps 4,800,000 

Total men in the Army 4,000,000 

Men who went overseas 2,086,000 

Men who fought in France 1,390,000 

Tons of supplies shipped from 

America to France 7,500,000 

Total registered in draft 24,234,021 

[89] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

Total draft inductions 2,810,296 

Cost of war to April 30, 1919 $21,850,000,000 

Battles fought by American troops. 13 

Days of battle 200 

Days of duration of Meuse-Argonne 

battle 47 

American battle deaths in war 48,900 

American wounded in war 236,000 

American deaths from disease 5^,991 

Total deaths in the Army 112,422 

The War Department has published many other 
striking figures. As many as 306,000 men were sent 
overseas in a single month. And recently as many 
as 333,000 have been returned to America in one 
month's time. In nineteen months, while the Amer- 
ican Army was in action, the United States Gov- 
ernment shipped 7,500,000 tons of supplies to 
France. For the draft 24,234,021 were registered, 
and of these 2,810,296 were inducted into service. 
The total number of inductions, recruitments, etc., 
from April 6, 1917, to November 11, 1918, was 
4,000,000, and the total armed force, including 
Army, Navy, and Marine Corps, was 4,800,000, or 
five men for each one hundred of our total popula- 
tion. About 200,000 commissioned officers were re- 
quired, when at the beginning less than 9,000 were 
available. As many as 1,200,000 men were thrown 
into a single offensive, the Meuse-Argonne. 

The fastest of the troop-ships made complete 

[90] 



AMERICA'S PART IN THE WAR 

round trips and started back again in nineteen days. 
The Army's cargo fleet was almost exclusively 
American and amounted to 2,600,000 dead-weight 
tons. 

Between April 6, 1917, and May 31, 1918, there 
were delivered to the Army 131,800,000 pairs of 
wool . stockings, 85,000,000 undershirts, 83,000,000 
drawers, 30,700,000 pairs of shoes, 26,500,000 flan- 
nel shirts, 21,700,000 blankets, 21,700,000 wool 
breeches, 13,900,000 wool coats, and 8,300,000 over- 
coats. American engineers built eighty-three new 
ship berths in France and 1,000 miles of standard 
and 538 miles of narrow-gauge railroads. The 
Signal Corps strung 100,000 miles of telephone 
wires. Forty thousand American-made motor- 
trucks were shipped overseas. Army construction 
projects in America cost twice as much as the 
Panama Canal, and overseas they were conducted 
on a scale almost as large. 

When war was declared the Army had on hand 
about 600,000 Springfield rifles. When the armis- 
tice was signed the total number of rifles produced 
was 2,500,000, and by the close of last year 226,557 
machine-guns had been manufactured here. When 
the armistice was signed America had produced 
3,500,000,000 rounds of ammunition, and half of it 
had been shipped overseas, in addition to the 
100,000,000 rounds secured from the British and 
French. The American Army had 3,500 pieces of 
artillery in France, nearly 500 of which were made 

[91] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

in America, and there were in use on the firing-line 
2,250 pieces, of which over 100 were made in 
America. Of the 2,698 planes sent to the front 
for the American Air Force, 667 were of Amer- 
ican make. The production of the twelve-cylinder 
Liberty engines was America's chief contribution to 
the Allies. Before the armistice 13,574 had been 
completed, 4,435 shipped to the Expeditionary 
Forces, and 1,025 delivered to the Allies. Amer- 
ican divisions were in battle for two hundred days. 

From the middle of August until the end of the war the 
American divisions held during the greater part of the 
time a front longer than that held by the British. 

In October the American divisions held loi miles of line, 
or 23 per cent of the entire western front. 

In the battle of St. Mihiel 550,000 Americans were en- 
gaged as compared with about 100,000 on the Northern 
side in the battle of Gettysburg. The artillery fired more 
than 1,000,000 shells in four hours, which is the most in- 
tense concentration of artillery fire recorded in history. 

The Meuse-Argonne battle lasted forty-seven days, dur- 
ing which 1,200,000 American troops were engaged. 

The typical American campaign unit was the 
division, composed of about 1,000 officers and 27,000 
enlisted men. When the armistice was signed 42 
American divisions had been trained and sent to 
Europe. Twelve other divisions were in training 
in America, and still four more were being organ- 
ized. The Army Department was planning to have 
80 divisions in France by July, 19 19, and 100 divis- 

[92] 



AMERICA'S PART IN THE WAR 

ions by January, 1920. Barracks had been con- 
structed in a few months to care for 1,800,000 men 
in training-camps. 

The war cost, up to April 30, 19 19, $21,850,- 
000,000. When the armistice was signed 4,800,000 
men were under arms, and 112,422 American sol- 
diers had been killed in action or had died from 
wounds or from disease. The total casualty list at 
that date was 342,991. In one battle, 1,200,000 
Americans had been engaged with 120,000 casual- 
ties. Two out of every three men sent to France 
were at some time in action. 

It has been estimated that the total number of 
deaths in battle alone for all belligerents in the great 
war was 7,450,200, divided as follows: 

Russia 1,700,000 ' 

Germany 1,600,000 

France 1,385,000 

Great Britain 900,000 

Austria 800,000 

Italy 330,000 

Turkey 250,000 

Serbia and Montenegro 125,000 

Belgium 102,000 

Rumania 100,000 

Bulgaria 100,000 

United States 48,900 

Greece 7,000 

Portugal 2,000 

[93] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

The above figures include only those killed out- 
right in battle. The total of those who died from 
wounds and disease, or who were not mortally 
wounded, is far larger. 

If the American people could organize their 
forces to make such a contribution in a campaign 
that was necessarily destructive, the world has a 
right to expect much of us in the period of re- 
construction. Since our sacrifices were not nearly 
so great as those of several other countries, we are 
under the great obligation to accept a large part of 
the responsibility for reconstructive effort in vari- 
ous parts of the earth. 



[94] 



XI 

Final Conferences in France 

En Route, Paris to London, 
April 28, 19 19. 

After spending six full weeks here, including the 
brief visit to Belgium, I am now traveling to En- 
gland, where I am to spend a few days in confer- 
ence with Baptist representatives before sailing for 
America, Just now I can send you merely a brief 
statement covering my last ten days in France, 
which were given chiefly to formal conferences 
and personal interviews. These conferences with 
groups, and interviews with individuals, enabled me 
to secure much additional information from Bap- 
tists and from Protestants in general. 

Easter Sunday I spoke at three Baptist churches 
in Paris. The neat "temple" at Colombes (Rev. 
E. Raynaud, pastor) was well filled at the morn- 
ing hour. At 2.30 in the afternoon I spoke to the 
Bonne Nouvelle Baptist Church where M. Guyot 
serves as lay-pastor. The congregation worships in 
one of the halls of the McAll Mission. At five 
o'clock there was a union Baptist meeting at the 
Rue de Lille Church, where Rev. A. Blocher, a 

[95] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

son-in-law of Doctor Saillens, is pastor. The eve- 
ning was spent at the home of Rev. Henri Merle 
d'Aubigne, one of the leading forces in the McAll 
Mission, a man of broad education and rather un- 
usual gifts. In passing I may say that the work of 
the McAll Mission has been greatly demoralized 
by the war, as is true of Christian work in general. 
Monday a conference was held with the official 
committee of the Franco-Beige Association. Sev- 
eral pastors from northern France and Belgium, 
not members of the committee, were invited to 
Paris for the conference. I raised numerous ques- 
tions regarding the reconstruction work that must 
be undertaken in the devastated areas and requested 
the committee to consider several general matters. 
Pastor Vincent, who is a forceful man, greatly be- 
loved by his own church and respected by other de- 
nominations as well, is chairman of the commit- 
tee. Several rather strong laymen constitute half 
the membership of the official board of this Asso- 
ciation. Before the war the Association was rais- 
ing eighty-five per cent of the total expenditures 
on its field. Most of the churches in this Associa- 
tion were in what is now a devastated region or 
in the sections occupied by the Germans for four 
years. This means that they must begin all over 
again, and in a region where normal conditions will 
not return for a good many years. The information 
of greatest value received in this conference, as 
well as the recommendations growing out of it, 

[96] 



FINAL CONFERENCES IN FRANCE 

will be brought to your attention at the meeting in 
Denver together with the findings of other confer- 
ences held last week. The years of suffering have 
told on the souls and bodies of these people who 
at several places were the only evangelical Chris- 
tian forces at work, and there would seem to be 
little" hope for them if they were left to their own 
resources. I marvel that they are not bitter. A 
visitor who ascertains what they have passed 
through finds it difiicult to refrain from some vio- 
lent expression of his feelings. The magnitude of 
Grermany's crime seems greater and greater as I go 
here and there in the wake of the war which left 
wreckage far vaster than I had imagined. I have 
seen the devastation at many points from Belgium 
to the borders of Switzerland. Until one has seen 
how vast it is he can hardly believe it. Yet our 
people there (and those who iirere there) face the 
future with courage. I am sure that the knowl- 
edge of your interest in them has given them new 
hope. 

On Tuesday I met with the official board of the 
Franco-Swiss Association. It was pleasing to find 
these men saying, " Go first to the relief of the 
Northern Association." None of their own churches 
were in the devastated area. On Wednesday I met 
with representatives of the two associations in joint 
session. On Thursday they were left to themselves 
to discuss in French the numerous questions that 
had been raised. I took advantage of the recess 

[97] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

to see a bit of the McAll Mission work. That 
evening the findings of the joint conference were 
presented. On Friday morning and Saturday eve- 
ning I met groups representing the two associa- 
tions for discussion of points that were not clear to 
me. Statistical tables have been prepared that give 
the most accurate information obtainable, and trans- 
lations of the findings are being prepared, all of 
which I hope to place in your hands at Denver, to- 
gether with my recommendations. Unfortunately, 
Doctor Saillens was unable, on account of engage- 
ments in England that were made long ago, to at- 
tend any of these conferences. 

After full discussion with the Baptist bodies I 
had the pleasure of a conference with the French 
Protestant Committee, which is composed of very 
able men. Its chairman, the Hon. Paul Fuzier, is 
a state counselor of high rank. The other members 
are thoroughly representative educators, pastors, 
and business men. I spoke very frankly as to how 
I thought American evangelicals might render as- 
sistance to the Protestant movement in France, and 
I invited criticism of plans that were under con- 
sideration in our denominational conferences. The 
discussion was helpful in several ways, and the 
echoes which reached me later confirm me in the 
feeling that our motives are not misunderstood, 
and that the most influential Protestant groups in 
France will welcome an enlargement of effort on 
the part of American Baptists not only in general 

[98] 



FINAL CONFERENCES IN FRANCE 

reconstruction work but in helping the Baptists of 
France to become a stronger force in the evan- 
gelical ranks. The conferences with the French 
Protestant Committee and the interviews with the 
secretary, Rev. Andre Monod, have been exceed- 
ingly satisfactory. 

In the joint Baptist conference at which the find- 
ings were presented, Dr. J. Whitcomb Brougher, of 
Los Angeles, and Army Chaplain W. O. Lewis, of 
William Jewell College, were present and expressed 
their satisfaction at the conclusions reached. Yes- 
terday Doctor Brougher spoke at the Rue de Lille 
Church. Earlier in the week I had enjoyed meet- 
ing Dr. Arthur C. Baldwin, of our Board, and 
Dr. Allyn K. Foster, who was formerly a member. 
Three weeks ago I encountered Dr. Herbert S. 
Johnson, who wished me to say to you that in his 
judgment there is a great call today for real evan- 
gelistic effort here as well as at home. 

These hurriedly written letters which I have sent 
you whenever I could find time to write, may not 
have proved of much value to you, but perhaps they 
will help to prepare your minds for the report which 
I am to place in your hands at Denver. Purposely 
I have avoided the political questions of the hour, 
for the very good reason that I know little more, 
if anything, about them than is known in America. 
You may be surprised at hearing that during my 
six weeks in France not more than six people, I 
think, have mentioned the Peace Conference to me. 

[99] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

Usually I have had to introduce the subject. The 
bitter experience of the French and the condition 
of their country in several respects naturally makes 
them more impatient at delay, however necessary 
that delay may be, than is true for us whose wounds 
are less deep and whose borders are far from Ger- 
many. There are some other questions connected 
with the war, in which the American people are in- 
terested, but a discussion of them is not properly a 
part of my report at present. 

The Findings of the Conference of French 

AND Belgian Baptist Representatives, in 

Paris, April 23 and 24, 1919, with 

Secretary J. H. Franklin 

The Conference expresses its humble and pro- 
found gratitude to the Almighty for the miraculous 
victory granted to the soldiers of right and justice. 

The war has left France in the sad condition 
of the man who fell among thieves, and the various 
descriptions which we might attempt are all 
summed up in the words of Luke 10 : 30, " who 
stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving 
him half dead," having, as his only hope, the com- 
passion of some good Samaritan. 

We feel that more than ever France wishes to 
revive in every department of life, and that she is 
called upon to have an increasingly important place 
in the vanguard of nations. France is therefore an 

[100] 



FINAL CONFERENCES IN FRANCE 

exceptional strategic field for Christian work. This 
spirit of revival is specially noticeable in evangelical 
circles. On the other hand, the intensity of our 
present affliction favors the manifestation of the con- 
soling and restoring power of the gospel. 

Moreover, the Roman Catholic dogma of abso- 
lutism has been discredited more than ever during 
the war. The times are favorable for the preaching 
of the gospel of personal religion. Protestantism, 
which has been the salt of France in the past, has 
an unparalleled opportunity at such a time as this. 
Evangelical Christianity alone can meet the present 
need of the nations. 

1 . Would an understanding with other denomina- 
tions be advisable in view of an apportionment of 
fields of work, in order to avoid unnecessary dupli- 
cation of efforts? 

The Conference deems an immediate understand- 
ing on this point advisable. The Committees of the 
two Associations have been empowered to deal with 
that question. 

2. In what measure can we help our brethren of 
the devastated regions? 

This question concerns the Franco-Belgian As- 
sociation, whose Committee has handed proposals 
to Doctor Franklin. Having been acquainted with 
this fact, the Conference unanimously expresses 
its gratefulness for the interest shown by Amer- 
ican Baptists to our tried churches. The repre- 

[lOl] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

sentatives of the Franco-Swiss Association seize 
this opportunity to declare their very earnest de- 
sire to see the work of reconstruction have the 
prior claim over any other interest. 

We fully approve of the policy of sharing Amer- 
ican Baptist war help with our tried brethren of the 
other denominations. Common sufferings have con- 
tributed to improve relations between the various 
Protestant bodies and we have welcomed the foun- 
dation of the " Comite d'Union Protestante pour les 
Secours de Guerre en France et en Belgique " 
(Protestant Union Committee for War Help) and 
we are grateful for its activities. 

3. Would it not be desirable to build huts which 
might be used as temporary places of worship and 
" foyers," including a heated shelter, reading-rooms, 
etc., and likely to become a means of evangeliza- 
tion? 

The Assembly is struck by the urgency and use- 
fulness of such a method. It endorses heartily 
Doctor Franklin's suggestion, and is ready to find 
qualified men and women, when funds shall have 
been made available. 

4. Should destroyed chapels be rebuilt on the 
same spot? 

The Franco-Belgian Federation has handed to 
Doctor Franklin a reply to this question. 

5. How should war orphans be cared for? 
After considering various methods of action we 

are of the opinion that it is desirable to use orphan- 

[102] 



FINAL CONFERENCES IN FRANCE 

ages only as a last resort. The best would be to 
make regular grants to the mother or relatives of 
orphans, or, when this is not possible, to entrust 
the children to Christian families at a fixed price. 
A commission having been appointed for the pur- 
pose of ascertaining the expenditure, has reported 
that two francs would be needed per day in orphan- 
ages, and three francs in families. These quota- 
tions do not include the small state appropriations. 

6. What effect has the economic situation had 
upon the present contributive powers of the 
churches ? 

In the devastated areas, the economic situation is 
still very unsatisfactory. In many places, industry 
is at a standstill, and the contributive faculties are 
not a tithe of what they were before the war. 

With regard to churches in other areas, the con- 
tributive faculty has not kept pace with the in- 
creased expenditures, as can be understood by the 
enclosed schedule of rise in prices. 

7. France has a great need of Christian literature. 
Would appropriate American translations be wel- 
come, and could not steps be taken toward an under- 
standing with other denominations? 

The Conference, fully aware of the need of evan- 
gelical literature, would welcome any steps taken 
to remedy this want. A commission of four is em- 
powered to enter into conference with other bodies, 
with a view to issuing and propagating Christian 
literature. 

[ 103] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

This commission is also requested to take steps 
in order to start a general Baptist paper. 

On account of the destruction of large quantities 
of hymn-books and of the utter impossibility of re- 
placing them with other than inadequate selections, 
the churches suffer greatly. On the other hand, 
we have a most effective selection prepared in manu- 
script form, whose publication has been prevented 
by the war. It is of paramount importance that ex- 
ceptional outside help should be granted, to enable 
us to have such an indispensable tool. 

8. What would be the prospects for colportage 
work? 

We consider colportage as the best pioneer 
method of evangelization, and are therefore of 
opinion that as many men as may be available 
should be put into that work, as soon as funds shall 
be coming in. A commission of four members is 
empowered to make plans, in order to be able to 
give our American brethren the information they 
may eventually require on this question. 

9. What is the opinion of the Conference with 
regard to matters of education and the training of 
our workers in American schools ? 

Regretting the scarcity of Protestant schools in 
our country, we are of opinion that there is an 
urgent need for educational institutions under Chris- 
tian auspices. The Conference favors at the same 
time the idea of sending qualified students abroad 
for the completion of their education. 

[104] 



FINAL CONFERENCES IN FRANCE 

10. What would be the prospects for women's 
work in France? 

We unanimously favor a large increase in the 
employment of Bible-women, visitors, nurses, and 
teachers, and deem that women would be most use- 
ful in the huts and foyers needed for the relief of 
our northern churches. 

11. What is the opinion of the Conference with 
regard to missionary prospects? 

We feel increased responsibility with regard to 
the prospects for new mission fields in territories 
which may become French. Although we are de- 
cided to do our best to find men and women, yet 
are we aware that we are not in a position to meet 
adequately the present opportunities. We place our- 
selves at the disposal of our American brethren if, 
in any way, we can facilitate the work which they 
may feel called upon to undertake in these fields. 
We might, for instance, facilitate relations with the 
French authorities, through qualified men belonging 
to our churches. 



[105] 



Statistics of the Franco-Swiss Association 



Location 


Names 
of Pastors 


Popula- 
tion of 
Towns 


Baptized 
Members 


of Churches 


Before 
War 


After 
War 


Paris: Rue de Lille 


A. Blocher 


2,500,000 


206 


215 


Paris: Bonne Nou- 
velle 


M. G. Guyot 


2,500,000 


65 


S8 


Colombes 
(No other church) 


Rev. E. Raynaud 


40,000 


59 


78 


Lyons 


Rev. E.Sagnol 


800,000 


37 


43 


St. £tienne and 
branches 


A. Pinon 


200,000 


21 


23 


Valentigny 


M. L. Louys 


5,000 


40 


29 


Montbeliard 


Rev. B. Jaccard 


10,000 


80 


73 


Nimes 


R. Du Barry 


80,000 


55 


70 


Nice 


A. Long 


135,000 


SOI 


SOI 


Geneva 




135.000 


40 


20 


Tramelon 


A. Gross 


8,000 


210 


215 


Chaux-de-Fonds 


A. Monnier 


45.000 


100 


130 


Court 


A. Affolke 


4,000 


40 


40 


Cavannes 


E. Chollet 


4,000 


25 


25 


, 


1,028 


1,069 



[106] 





Statistics of the Franco-Belgk 


Association 










Location of Churches 


Names iif Pastors 


Popula- 
tion of 
Towns 


Industrial Conditions 


Baptized Members j 


Total of Adherents 1 


Sunday School 
Pupils 




Before 
War 


After 
War 


Before 
War 


After 
War 


Before 
War 


After 
War 


Anzin (A) 
Auchel (A) 
Bertry (B) 
Br^ay (B) 
Cliauny (A) 
Croix (C) 


M. Marquer, ancien 

M. Evard 

Pastor died during war 

M. Crefier 

M. Pelce 

M. Mafille 


15 

6 

30 


000 


" Reduced to nothing " 
Coal mines in action 
" Reduced to nothing " 
Coal mines in action 
Destroyed 


34 
40 
17 

40 
58 
6S 


Dispersed 

Dispersed 

50 
Dispersed 

55 


80 
250 
5° 

350 


250 
Dispersed 

150 
Dispersed 


30 
135 
25 
30 
60 


50 
Dispersed 

50 
Dispersed 


Dcnain (A) 


M. Farelly 


35 


000 


" Reduced to nothing " 


IZ5 


125 


350 


350 


-0 


40 


Lens (B) 


M. Crefier 


35 


000 


" Reduced to nothing " 


85 


Dispersed 


300 


Dispersed 


200 


Dispersed 


Bethune (A) 


M. Crefier 


■2 


000 


Destroyed 


20 


Dispersed 


60 


Dispersed 


,- 


Dispersed 


La Fere (A) 


M. Andru 


7 


800 


Destroyed 


57 


Dispersed 


■70 


Dispersed 


■5 


Dispersed 


Paris 


M. Ph. Vincent 


3,500 


000 


Town much damaged 


268 


218 


700 


700 


35 


35 


St . Sauveur (A) 


M. GuiUaume 


4 


300 


Town much damaged 


40 


45 


200 


200 


28 


28 


Mont-sur-Marchienne (A) 


M. Valet 


12 


000 


Slightly damaged 


45 


55 


75 


ISO 


45 


45 


Ougree (A) 


M. Brogniez 


15 


000 


Slightly damaged 


47 


50 


200 


200 


50 


50 


Peruwelz 


M. Rafinesque 


10 


000 


Slightly damaged 


35 


32 


145 


125 


40 


30 


Roubaix ) 
Vourcoing J 


M. Rafinesque 


-^^ 


000 




.5 


14 


6n 


40 


,0 


30 










701 


644 


3.240 


2,265 


S23 


363 



(A) No other evangelical church in the city. 

(B) One other evangelical church in the city. 

(C) Two other evangelical churches in the cii 



XII 
Homeward Bound with the Doughboys 

Now that the fight is over, the American dough- 
boy in France wants just one thing; and he wants 
it quick — " back home toot sweet." The officers may 
hang around the Sorbonne if they wish, go to the 
great American University established at Beaune, 
study archeology around Nimes, run over to the 
French Alps, or frequent the cafes of Paris. But 
the doughboys have enough of overseas life, and, in 
making known their desire to shake the dust of 
Europe from their feet, they tack on their own cor- 
ruption of the expressive French phrase tout de 
suite, which they are using more frequently and 
more emphatically than any other bit of the lan- 
guage they have picked up over there. The ships 
cannot be run fast enough to satisfy these men, 
most of whom were never very far from their 
native States in America before they started for the 
trenches, the shell-fire, and the gas-tanks of a battle- 
field on the other side of a wide sea that was in- 
fested with submarines. Now that they have helped 
to break the mainspring of the Watch on the 
Rhine, they long for the banks of the Wabash, or 
the shores of Lake Michigan, or little old New 

[107] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

York. In the case of the men on the Noordam on 
this voyage, they pined for the region around the 
Great Lakes, since the One Hundred and Twenty- 
fifth and One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Infantry, 
of the Thirty-second Division, came principally from 
Michigan and Wisconsin. 

The band of our Dutch ship was playing " The 
Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming," as more 
than one thousand eight hundred rugged fellows of 
the Thirty-second Division of the A, E. F. came up 
the gang-plank at Brest, bending a bit under full 
packs of blankets, knapsacks, helmets, gas-masks, 
canteens, et cetera. The year in France had not 
removed the bold and somewhat uncouth facial ex- 
pression which men wear who are reared in the 
forests, or on the fields, or beside the streams of the 
Great Lakes region. The months in French vil- 
lages, the days and nights in trenches, the reckless 
charges through Chateau Thierry and the Argonne 
Forest, the occupation of a part of Germany, and 
the few days in " gay Paree " had left them still 
the plain men whose faces told that they had been 
reared close to the soil. Here they were, going 
home! The moment was electric. One standing 
close to the line that passed over the side of the 
ship could not help wishing he might take every one 
of them by the hand and thank him for the won- 
derful thing he had helped to do — a thing that will 
seem more wonderful a hundred years from now. 
In the twenty-first century our children's children 

[io8] 



HOMEWARD BOUND WITH DOUGHBOYS 

will sing of these crusaders, to whom God gave 
" eyes to see a dream," and " hearts to follow the 
gleam." At the same time one could not help 
thinking of the thousands of graves on the fields 
where these men had fought, marked with red, 
white, and blue shields on wooden crosses, which 
proclaim the fact that American soldiers lie buried 
there — could not help thinking of the men who 
came over with the Thirty-second, but were not 
going back. 

Each of the sturdy fellows had been given a blue 
ticket bearing the number of his clean straw mat- 
tress among the one thousand eight hundred or 
more double-deck iron beds in the steerage. Barges 
came alongside with tons of beef, onions, canned 
soup, and dried fruits, and thousands of loaves of 
bread. These men who had helped to save civiliza- 
tion were to endure the hardships of the steerage, 
chairless decks, and plain food for ten days or more. 
Some of us who had done nothing more heroic dur- 
ing the struggle than invest our money at a good 
rate of interest were in the first cabin with the 
officers, faring sumptuously every day. Herein lies 
a parable, capable of wide application if we have 
eyes to see it, which we shall do well to heed — that 
is, if we have any regard for the signs of the 
times. 

The great ship Imperator, which was tied up at 
Hamburg throughout the war and was recently 
brought to Brest by the Germans for the use of the 

[ 109] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

United States Army, was lying close by, preparing 
to sail for America, with twelve thousand men 
aboard who helped to defeat the Kaiser. French 
submarines were diving in and out near the mouth 
of the harbor. An observation balloon was a thou- 
sand feet in the air just outside of Brest. An army 
aeroplane was circling over us. Two United States 
battle-ships, the Rhode Island and the Virginia, their 
decks crowded with men in khaki, steamed past us, 
homeward bound. The Plattsburg, a troop-ship 
which was known as the City of New York when 
it was one of the ocean greyhounds twenty-five and 
thirty years ago, slipped out to sea ahead of us. As 
we were about to weigh anchor, one of the officers 
among the American troops aboard the Noordam 
was ordered ashore very suddenly, after his trunk 
was in his cabin. Hard luck ! Interrupted after he 
had settled down to a game of cards in the smoking- 
room, happy in the expectation of seeing America 
in just ten days more. But a soldier goes where 
he is sent and does what he is told. 

These men of the Thirty-second Division went 
where they were sent — to the Alsace front, to 
Chateau Thierry and through the Argonne. The 
red insignia on their left shoulders — an arrow 
piercing a bar — was symbolic of their service. Did 
they not throw themselves as straight as an arrow 
through the Hindenburg Line, which the German 
officers in their concrete dugouts believed could not 
be broken ? Was not Private Norton the first Amer- 

[no] 



HOMEWARD BOUND WITH DOUGHBOYS 

ican soldier to reach Berlin ? That is the story told 
me by the officer in command of the troops aboard 
the Noordam when he introduced Private Norton, 
who, it is alleged, hid himself in a freight-car one 
day, several weeks after the armistice was signed, 
and stayed out of sight until the train was shifted 
on to a side-track in Berlin and he could display 
the American khaki, with a red arrow on the sleeve, 
up and down Unter den Linden. He carried enough 
red paint in his pocket to leave the symbol of his 
division on a bridge in Berlin before he surrendered 
to the local police. Private Norton is from Los 
Angeles. California on top once more ! 

But Private Norton was not the only soldier 
on board who had distinguished himself. A modest 
man was Lieutenant Britton, who brought in single- 
handed so many German prisoners at one time that 
I am afraid to name the number — eighty, they said. 
It was a most extraordinary ruse he worked on the 
enemy, in persuading eighty Germans that they 
were surrounded and might as well surrender, when 
he was himself ahead of his own line. A corre- 
spondent in France wrote to a newspaper in the lieu- 
tenant's home town in Michigan that the American 
Army was conducting a perfectly good war in France 
until Britton came along and spoiled it all. One 
can hear a lot of good stories on a troop-ship. One 
day the major in command sat down and told me a 
few of the achievements of his men. One company 
of the Thirty-second Division went into the Argonne 

[III] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

fight and fought its way for twenty days through 
the dense forests and across the deep ravines. Of 
the two hundred and thirty-eight in that company 
who went in, one hundred and seven men were able 
to answer roll-call when they came out. A machine- 
gun company of the same division went into France 
one hundred and seventy-two strong, but on board 
the Noordam only twenty-nine of the original com- 
pany were returning home. Thirty-nine had been 
killed in action, ninety-nine had been wounded 
(many severely), and one had died from disease. 
None were known to have been discharged. But 
these figures are not really striking in comparison 
with the records of many other companies. 

One day as I came up from the lower forward 
deck, after mixing for an hour with the doughboys, 
General Andrews was leaning on the rail. " Gen- 
eral," I queried, " how do you account for the 
ability of these raw countrymen to meet success- 
fully the shock troops of Germany ? " He was not 
long in replying that, in the first place, there was 
no finer body of men in any army. Nearly all of 
them were about the same age, which was noticeable 
in comparison with the armies of war-worn Europe. 
In the second place, he said, they came over with 
the morale of crusaders, feeling they must throw 
the decisive pound into the scales. Naturally our 
conversation led up to the welfare work done for 
the soldiers by the various organizations. The 
general said it had all been done in his branch of 

[112] 



HOMEWARD BOUND WITH DOUGHBOYS 

the service, and therefore he knew, but he had no 
patience with the criticism on matters relatively 
trivial. He was sure, too, that General Pershing 
shared that view. 

" Relatively trivial." Well said ! There was a 
Salvation Army lassie on board who I am sure had 
done her bit, and had done it well. There were 
Red Cross workers and " Y " girls returning home 
after service with the army. I recalled some of the 
women whom I had seen in action. At Chalons- 
sur-Marne, when I asked the way to the " Y," a 
doughboy said : " There are no Y men here just 
now, but there are two honest-to-goodness Amer- 
ican girls here in charge of the hut, and they sure 
are fine. They will do anything for us fellows, 
and a doughboy looks as good to them as an of- 
ficer." That evening I found other enlisted men at 
the hut singing the same kind of songs about the 
two American girls who had worn themselves out 
that day in moving their equipment into larger 
quarters. Then there was the big hut at Verdun, 
with four American girls in charge, who had served 
breakfast to four hundred men that morning. It 
made a great impression on members of the In- 
dustrial Commission from America, with whom I 
was traveling that day. Of course there were some 
mistakes made. Incidentally, I saw a mistake made 
by representatives of the United States Army, when 
tons of coal were dropped into the harbor at Brest, 
and our sailing was delayed. Yes, some mistakes 

[113] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

were made, but much of the criticism has been " on 
matters relatively trivial," as General Andrews said. 
Cigarets and chocolate are tremendously important 
when they are needed at the front. So is the work 
of the " Y " woman I saw on the streets of London 
late at night, tactfully separating doughboys from 
street-walkers, and steering them to places of 
safety. 

The enlisted men who were crowded into the 
hold at night, and on the lower decks by day, found 
the voyage long-drawn-out, despite their jazz band, 
their dances and songs, and the excitement of a 
wireless call one day to go to the relief of a sailing- 
vessel in distress, which must have been reached 
by some other ship before we arrived on the spot. 
I rather innocently remarked to the chaplain in 
charge of both the social and religious work for the 
troops that years ago I was accused of some native 
ability to tell negro dialect stories. The next night 
Uncle Remus and other less-known characters were 
introduced below decks. Later, in mid-Atlantic, on 
the forward deck the men gathered around for 
more of the same sort. There were prominent men 
and women in the passenger-list with whom it was 
worth while to establish acquaintance, and my re- 
port on conditions as I observed them in France 
and Belgium was being prepared, but some of us 
could not resist the lure of the men on the lower 
decks. One evening at seven o'clock the chaplain 
asked me to conduct a religious service in open air. 

[114] 



HOMEWARD BOUND WITH DOUGHBOYS 

Several hundred men crowded around where the 
wind was favorable. And how they did sing! 
"When the Roll is Called up Yonder, I'll be 
There " ; " The Little Brown Church in the Wild- 
wood"; "Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour"; 
" Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus." Until then they 
had not taken the man with the negro dialect stories 
for a sky-pilot. But apparently they were ready to 
listen to an appeal to take their orders through life 
from the Great Commander, just as during the war 
they had obeyed orders from army headquarters 
and thereby had achieved success. At the close of 
the address almost every hand seemed to go up in 
an expression of the desire to have the help of the 
Great Commander in an attempt to dedicate their 
lives, in the spirit of Christ, to the highest and best, 
and to return home to make America worthy of the 
sacrifices of their comrades who were sleeping in 
France. What a great opportunity for real service 
was enjoyed by manly men who were close to our 
soldiers during those fateful days of 1917 and 1918. 
The last day out it was hard to keep away from 
the forward deck, where as many doughboys as 
could stand in comfort crowded to the bow, sat on 
the ventilators, and climbed into the rigging, as if 
anxious to catch sight of land at the earliest second. 
When the hills were in plain view one of them re- 
marked that it looked like an interesting country. 
When the pilot came up the side at Ambrose Chan- 
nel lightship they greeted him with a cheer. And 

[115] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

when Old Glory was released at the top of the fore- 
most mast of the Dutch ship they simply howled. 
They mistook a lighthouse for the Goddess of 
Liberty and saluted accordingly. The Goddess of 
Liberty, by the way, is now coming into its own. 
Part of the deck talk all the way across the Atlantic 
is about seeing Miss Liberty. There is an appro- 
priateness in this gift from France now being the 
one thing the boys look for as they return home. As 
the ship passed under the uplifted arms of the 
statue with torch in hand, one of them said, " Take 
a good look, old girl, you'll never see me again." 
Another said, " No more war for me, unless it's do- 
mestic." 

When a customs officer, with a bundle of papers 
under his arm, came aboard, wearing a greenish 
coat which suggested a Boche uniform, he was 
" guyed " unmercifully. " He looks like a Hun." 
" Maybe he's a spy." " He seems to have important 
papers." " Private, put on your side-arms and 
guard him." " Take him to the rear." 

We reached New York harbor too late to be per- 
mitted to dock the same day, so we dropped anchor 
in the bay Saturday night. A full, white moon was 
coming up out of the sea, and the lights from the 
shore were falling ini silvery ribbons across the 
water. The stage was well set, when after supper 
the men realized they were back home and began 
to sing. It was interesting to note the songs they 
preferred — such songs as " Memories," " Dream- 

[ii6] 



HOMEWARD BOUND WITH DOUGHBOYS 

land," " Smiles," " Love's Old Sweet Song," " Carry 
Me Back to Old Virginny," and " When You Come 
to the End of a Perfect Day." 

It was a good time, too, for them to sing, 

Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag, 

And smile, smile, smile. 
While 3'ou've a lucifer to light your fag. 

Smile, boys; that's the style. 
What's the use of worrjdng? 

It never was worth while; 
So pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag. 

And smile, smile, smile. 

The hour and the atmosphere were appropriate 
for the song they sang with feeling: 

There's a long, long trail awinding 

Into the land of my dreams, 
Where the nightingales are singing, 

And a white moon beams; 
There's a long, long night of waiting 

Until my dreams all come true, 
Till the day when I'll be going down 
^ That long, long trail with you. 

A little later a small group drifted ofi, and I heard 
them singing, " I Want a Girl just like the Girl that 
Married Dear Old Dad." And as if in memory 
of those who were left on the fields of France, this 
same small group on the side were singing: 

Break the news to mother, 
That I am not coming home. 

[117] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

The ship's band was beginning to play for a 
dance for the officers and first-cabin passengers on 
the upper deck. It struck up the air we had heard 
at Brest as the men were coming aboard. The 
soldiers sang it : 

Over there, over there; 

Send the word, send the word over there, 

That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming, 

The drums rum-tum-ming ev'rywhere. 

So prepare — say a pra'r; 

Send the word, send the word to beware ! 

When the echoes of the last lines had died away, 

We'll be over, we're coming over, 

And we won't come back till it's over over there, 

one of the men piped up, 

" Well, we are back ; and it's over." 



[ii8] 



XIII 

Portions of the Formal Report to the 
Board of Managers 

On the homeward voyage Secretary Franklin 
formulated his report to the Board of Managers 
of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. 
The following sections are taken from the heart of 
his report: 

Some Questions for Consideration 

I. Are France and Belgium in need of assistance? 

(i) First is the appeal of the devastated regions. From 
the North Sea to the borders of Switzerland there is a 
great gash, four hundred and fifty miles in length and 
varying in breadth, which includes two thousand cities, 
towns, and villages completely destroyed, and lying in 
appalling silence, or seriously injured. 

(2) Next is the bitter cry of those who suffer. There 
are hundreds of thousands of women and children whose 
husbands or fathers fell in battle, whose houses have 
been destroyed, who are beginning to think of returning 
to the piles of brick and dust that they call home, and who 
are likely to suffer severely next winter. 

(3) In a very large section of France and southern Bel- 
gium there was a needless destruction of practically all 
industries. Mines have been injured to such an extent 
that they are useless at present, and in some cases they 

[119] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

cannot be restored to normal output for at least six years. 
Thousands of factories, with all their machinery, were 
completely demolished when the Germans retreated. Until 
money can be secured to replace the machinery, there 
seems to be little prospect for industrial recuperation. The 
deplorable industrial conditions are affecting the finances 
of the country. The French franc is worth about twenty 
per cent less, in comparison with American and English 
currency, than was true before the war. Meanwhile, on 
account of the vast destruction in its chief industrial area, 
the Government is facing the loss, for possibly twenty- 
five years, of taxes on about one-fourth of the taxable 
property of the country. We are told that the Govern- 
ment is afraid to tax the people directly for even the 
interest on its huge indebtedness. With a large part of 
the industries destroyed, and the cost of living about three 
and one-third times as high as it was before the war, the 
situation for the French people is alarming. 

(4) Religious conditions constitute an appeal. Of the 
thirty-eight millions of people in France, nearly all are 
nominally Roman Catholics, except the comparatively small 
Protestant bodies, who aggregate fewer than one million. 
But it is said that not more than six or seven millions 
of the Roman Catholics in France take a personal interest 
in religion, and that at least thirty millions may be said 
to constitute a field for religious effort. In one of my 
letters from France I attempted to give some idea of 
the strength of the Protestant forces and of the general 
effect of the war on the religious situation. Without 
question the Vatican has lost much of its prestige, and 
evangelical principles are more widely respected than be- 
fore the war. But it can hardly be said that there is wide- 
spread interest in personal religion as a result of the con- 
flict. Most churches in France have suffered through the 
years of struggle. Many churches in the northern areas 
have lost their houses of worship, or have seen them 

[ 120 ] 



REPORT TO THE BOARD OF MANAGERS 

severely injured. The congregations have been scattered; 
many of the members have been killed; in numerous in- 
stances the work must be begun anew. In the Franco- 
Beige Baptist Association fourteen of the sixteen churches 
were in towns completely destroyed by the Germans, or 
occupied by them for four years. 

2. Is America under any special obligation to lend assis- 
tance at this hour? 

(1) Every humanitarian instinct demands that we have 
fellowship with the sufferings of the French and Belgian 
peoples. In a very real sense, American Christianity is 
now on trial. 

(2) The volume and intensity of the suffering of sister 
nations in recent days, for principles fundamental in Amer- 
ican life, constitute a strong appeal. 

(3) The significant political and spiritual contributions 
of France to America make us debtors. 

France has been a battle-ground of new ideas that 
afterward triumphed in other parts of the earth. Ben- 
jamin Franklin was so impressed with this fact that he de- 
clared every man to have two mother countries — his own 
and France. France has been the seed-plot where trees 
were started, which grew more rapidly when transplanted 
in a less rocky soil where the climate proved more favor- 
able. Thomas Jefferson seems to have received some of 
his inspiration from the land of the Huguenots before he 
made his fight for separation of Church and State. 

The world can never repay the heroic Belgian nation 
for its determined stand at Liege, and later when the 
German armies were held sufficiently to give the larger 
powers still more time to prepare to meet the enemy. 

(4) Evangelical Christians of America are peculiarly in- 
debted to France. It would be interesting to trace his- 
torically some of the strongest evangelical streams in 
America to the Huguenot sources. 

[121] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 



3. What are some of the immediate needs that may he 
met in part by the churches of America? 

(i) The first needs are of a very practical character. 

The hour calls for such service as that suggested by 
the Master when he declared, " Inasmuch as ye did it unto 
one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto 
me." It is a moment for service of the most disinterested 
character, regardless of the race or creed of the bene- 
ficiary. It is not a moment for propaganda as such. A 
consoling gospel should be preached to a suffering people, 
and with it should go an expression of practical Chris- 
tianity. 

Church buildings must be erected in the not distaiat 
future, but they do not constitute the first need. The peo- 
ple are beginning to go back in small numbers to their 
towns and villages, and many of them will find nothing left 
of their old homes. They will be compelled to suffer great 
hardships and privation during the reconstruction period, 
and any practical assistance that can be offered them will 
be greatly appreciated. In my judgment, the Christian 
forces of America should open huts, or foyers, as the 
French call them, which can be made to minister to the 
physical comfort of the people returning to their homes, 
and which may be used as places of worship as well until 
it is possible to erect permanent church buildings. As an 
illustration, consider the city of Lens, where there was a 
Baptist church before the war. 

In 1914 Lens was a city of thirty thousand people in the 
richest coal-mining region of northern France. When the 
Germans retreated northward in 1918, not a structure of 
any sort was left. What was once a prosperous city is 
now a waste of broken stone and brick, with here and 
there a jagged wall or chimney left standing. When I 
was there in April about one hundred people had returned, 
and were trying to make temporary shelters for them- 



[ 122] 



REPORT TO THE BOARD OF MANAGERS 

selves. Without question, this city will be rebuilt, and 
doubtless in a few months' time a large number of people 
will be moving in that direction. With the coming of 
autumn and winter the suffering among the returned 
refugees will be great, unless some provision is made for 
their comfort. If a central hall, a large board structure, 
were erected in Lens, with social rooms, well heated and 
lighted through the winter, that in itself would furnish a 
large measure of comfort. Such a hall could be used, 
too, as a depot for supplies of clothing and food, and 
sleeping accommodations could be provided for a few of 
the people who would need shelter while reestablishing 
their homes. In the outlying villages several small inex- 
pensive cottages might be erected, each in charge of a 
Christian family, where a few people could be given shelter 
temporarily. Such a plan as is suggested is capable of 
almost indefinite expansion. There are several towns in 
the devastated areas where there were Baptist churches 
before the war, and therefore these are in a peculiar way 
the fields to which we should give attention immediately by 
enabling the pastors and their people to conduct huts, or 
foyers, properly equipped. Were work of this character 
undertaken, one man and perhaps two women should be 
in charge of each large center. These workers would find 
much to do too, outside of the huts in ministering to the 
community. I am of the opinion that some man from 
America, with good business sense and a knowledge of 
the French language, should be sent to France to have 
supervision of all this work, in conference with French 
committees, should the two Boards undertake it. Every 
one with whom I talked in France, or aboard ship, is of 
the opinion that what I am suggesting is altogether prac- 
ticable and is urgently required. 

In America there is considerable interest in the war 
orphans of France, and I made special effort to ascertain 
the wisest procedure on the part of those who wish to 

[123] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

lend assistance. Among the French I found the general 
opinion that orphanages should be established only as a 
last resort. Every one I consulted was of the opinion 
that it is far better for the children to be left with the 
mothers, and for friends in America to supplement what 
the French Government will do, rather than to provide 
orphanages. Where there are no mothers, or other rela- 
tives left to care for the children, orphanages already in 
existence may be utilized. The Committees of our Baptist 
Associations in France are prepared to administer any 
funds that may be sent through our Foreign Mission So- 
ciety for the support of orphans. Each orphan will re- 
quire about one hundred dollars per annum or more in 
addition to the sixty dollars provided by the French Gov- 
ernment, although smaller amounts will be welcomed. 

Provision should be made immediately to assist the pas- 
tors in France. Most of the pastors who were not called 
to the colors have given their time exclusively to their 
work, and while their salaries have naturally been reduced 
the cost of living has greatly increased. Men in other 
vocations now receive much larger wages or salaries than 
were provided before the war. The pastors as a class 
have felt the financial pinch more acutely perhaps than 
any other group in France. These men should be enabled 
to give their full time and strength to preaching a consol- 
ing gospel to the people whose hearts crave spiritual 
strength, as they try to reconstruct their lives, their homes, 
and their industries. Evangelistic campaigns should be 
conducted. 

(2) Needs that must be anticipated. 

In very many sections a new start is necessary, and the 
Baptists must begin about where they were, as churches, 
twenty-five years ago. Without question, they must be 
assisted in the erection of their houses of worship. It is 
to be hoped too that the Baptists of America, who con- 
stitute one of the largest of all the evangelical denomina- 

[124] 



REPORT TO THE BOARD OF MANAGERS 

tions, will not confine their gifts for French work to the 
Baptists in France, who are very weak in comparison with 
others. The findings of the joint conference in Paris ex- 
press the feeling which I found among the French and 
Belgian Baptists in general, to the effect that in this hour 
of great need they have no right to monopolize the in- 
terest of their brethren in America. 

I was surprised to find that in France and Belgium 
there is a very limited evangelical Christian literature. It 
is my opinion that within the next two or three years 
assistance should be given to the production and distribu- 
tion of such literature in those countries. Here is an op- 
portunity for cooperative effort, and if the evangelicals 
were encouraged to expect assistance in such effort a joint 
committee might be constituted, with authority to bring out 
more books by French authors, to secure translations of 
acceptable works in other languages, and to arrange for 
the distribution of such literature in every section of the 
two countries. 

It seems to be apparent to thoughtful men in France 
that a good college under evangelical Christian auspices is 
essential. I find no difference of opinion on that point, 
and most of the French people with whom I talked be- 
lieve that nothing would contribute so much in the end to 
the advancement of their cause as the establishment of 
such an institution, with a few preparatory schools. In the 
Huguenot country I was impressed with the sturdiness 
of the children of the large Protestant population, and I 
was made to feel that if modern education could be added 
to their sturdiness of character and to the zeal which they 
have inherited, France might feel again the power of the 
Huguenots. Indeed, I am of the opinion that the hope 
of evangelical Christianity in France lies largely in the 
six hundred thousand people who are the spiritual de- 
scendants of the Huguenots. At present many of these 
people are suffering from formalism, but the traditions 

[125] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

which are dear to them furnish a background that prompts 
them to respond readily to a warm evangelical interpre- 
tation of the gospel. Several years ago Dr. Ruben Sail- 
lens reached the conclusion that these Christians of Hugue- 
not stock could do more than any other people for the 
spiritual renewal of France, if they were to catch a fresh 
passion for the propagation of evangelical principles. 
Accordingly, he has been working almost entirely in re- 
cent years in the Reformed churches, where great crowds 
have heard him gladly. If a thoroughly good college, 
with several academies, could be established in the old 
Huguenot country of France, I believe that in a few 
decades a large number of men would be released to lead 
in the struggle for the spiritual renewal of their coun- 
try. This, however, is too large an enterprise for any 
one Board. It should receive the sympathetic considera- 
tion of evangelical bodies in America who acknowledge 
their indebtedness to John Calvin and the Huguenots and 
who covet an opportunity to make a gift in recognition 
of that indebtedness. Such an institution should be con- 
tributed as an outright gift to the evangelical Christians 
of France. This suggestion of the gift of an institution 
of learning to the general body of evangelical Christians 
in France raises the question of our ultimate interest in 
movements in that country. 

4. What is our ultimate or chief interest with reference 
to the spiritual life of France f 

(i) We believe that those Christian principles which are 
best described as evangelical are necessary for the world 
at large. 

(2) We believe that it is of importance to the world 
at large that evangelical principles shall prevail in France. 

France has a new place in the affections of men. Never 
before was a land made sacred by the blood of the sons 
of so many nations. The ends of the earth have con- 

[ 126] 



REPORT TO THE BOARD OF MANAGERS 

tributed of their greatest treasure to insure the triumph 
of right in the struggle on the soil of France. Where 
treasure has been invested by nations, thither will the 
hearts of men turn with new affection. The scenes of 
suffering frequently become humanity's shrines. In the 
midst of the conflict Edison said, " France is the banner 
of the world." 

France occupies a larger place in the thought of the 
world. Its history will be studied more widely, and 
humanity will have a fresh appreciation of that country's 
immeasurable contribution to civilization. Potentially, 
France is today a greater moral power than ever before, 
and almost certainly will be a greater political power, with 
immense colonial possessions. 

In view of her past history, in view of her recent hero- 
ism, and in view of her probable future, we covet the 
influence of France on all the world in favor of the free- 
dom of the human soul, and against priestcraft and autoc- 
racy. Our chief concern in the religious life of France is 
that evangelical principles shall prevail. 

5. How can we best cooperate with our brethren in 
France and Belgium? How can we best express our chief 
interest in the spiritual life of these countries? 

(i) A complete program for the future not determinable 
at present. 

Some of the immediate needs have been pointed out. 
Besides those immediate needs, several tasks of large pro- 
portions appear to await our brethren in the not distant 
future. Besides helping to meet the immediate needs, we 
should prepare to assist, in time, in the reconstruction of 
houses of worship, in the support of wide-spread evan- 
gelistic effort, in the creation of adequate facilities for the 
development of evangelical leadership, in the production 
and distribution of Christian literature, and in other ways. 
But I confess that a complete program for the future does 

[127] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

not seem determinable at present. With the exception of 
a few clearly defined needs which are appearing on the 
horizon, I could not attempt as yet to outline, if I were 
asked to do so, a well-defined program for the years to 
come, and I would question the ability of any one out- 
side of France, to see very far into the future. There is 
still a low barometer. There may be breakers ahead. The 
wreckage must be removed. Wounds must be bound up. 
The fields must be salvaged before a large program of 
constructive work can be undertaken. The main question 
to be answered is this : Do we wish to help in reconstruc- 
tion? If we wish to help, we may allow some of the 
details of the program to await developments. 

(2) Principles of procedure more important than pro- 
gram. 

It is my opinion that as we face the future the prin- 
ciples of procedure on the part of American evangelicals 
who wish to lend a hand in France are more important 
than a detailed program of effort for the days that lie 
ahead. In the light of our deepest interest in the spir- 
itual life of France, namely, the prevalence of evangelical 
Christianity, the following principles seem fairly clear: 

a. We should cultivate a closer fellowship with our 
evangelical brethren of France and Belgium. The evan- 
gelical truths held in common constitute the basis for an 
entente cordiale. 

b. We should recognize that evangelical Christianity is 
not an exotic in France. What we wish the people of that 
land to enjoy is no new thing to them. Evangelical prin- 
ciples are indigenous in the land of Joan of Arc, John 
Calvin, Coligny, and the martyred Protestants who bore 
the name Huguenots. The French Reformation preceded 
the similar movements in Germany and England. " There 
is nothing more French, more * old French,' than the Prot- 
estantism of France." 

In this land, where the open Bible on the table in front 

[128] 



REPORT TO THE BOARD OF MANAGERS 

of the pulpit of almost every evangelical church is the 
badge of Protestantism, there were many translations of 
the Scriptures before Christopher Columbus discovered 
America. 

c. We should recognize with gratitude that the foun- 
tains of evangelical Christianity were flowing in France 
long before there was church life of any kind in America. 
Through the centuries the rivulet of evangelical religion 
has been flowing in Europe, although often retarded. We 
should seek to assist in quickening the flow of the native 
springs rather than attempt artificial irrigation through 
American channels. 

d. There should be no move on our part that would 
suggest a religious invasion of France by a foreign force. 
We should seek the counsel of the true spiritual descendants 
of Calvin and the Huguenots, whose interest in the progress 
of evangelical religion in their own land, the land of their 
fathers, surely is as genuine and as deep as ours can be, 
and whose knowledge of the situation is superior to our 
own. They are entitled to a full knowledge of all the 
plans of those who wish to aid them. They will welcome 
us if we go as comrades. They will not welcome an 
American program imposed on France. 

e. We should proceed with humility. What have we 
that we did not receive? Did we create the national 
resources that constitute much of our power today? Did 
we not inherit the principles that we wish to propagate? 
And historically we owe much to the early French Prot- 
estants who were scattered to Holland and to England, 
and to America, when they were about to suffer imprison- 
ment, or even death, for their principles. Here in the 
free air of America the principles for which the early 
Protestants in France were persecuted have blazed forth. 
The sparks that fell into the fields of America found a 
place where they could burst into a great flame, for the 
enlightenment of the world. 

[129] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

Our efforts for France and Belgium should be made 
without shouting by the captains. 'There should be an 
almost studied absence of display. Our cooperation should 
be unobtrusive. The less we discuss our own leadership 
at this hour, the better. The more we assume the atti- 
tude of brother, the more widely can we serve; and ser- 
vice — disinterested service — should be our watchword. 

/. We should exercise the greatest care to strengthen 
the evangelical front in France and Belgium and not to 
weaken it, either through an excessive broadness or through 
a needless narrowness. 

" Eglise Evangelique" (Evangelical Church) is the name 
over nearly every one of the Protestant churches in France 
and Belgium. The line of cleavage there is between 
Romanism and evangelicalism. Let not the issue be ob- 
scured, either through an excessive broadness or through 
a needless narrowness. Any attempt at an alliance with 
Rome is excessive broadness, and a recent effort in that 
direction was, in my judgment, enough to make the spirits 
of Calvin and the Huguenots rebuke the Commission, 
as it crossed the soil of the evangelical martyrs of France. 
On the other hand, let no needless narrowness prevent a 
proper cooperation between those who are spiritual allies. 
We believe that organic union of churches would tend 
to diminish emphasis on the right of every man to think 
and to act for himself, apart from creed, ordinance, priest, 
or church ; hence we oppose it. But we are ready, I 
take it, to cooperate with those who, like Joan of Arc, 
believe that God speaks directly to the human soul, re- 
gardless of ecclesiastical connections; and who, also like 
the heroine of France breathing the name of Jesus only as 
the flames were about her, accept him and him alone as 
their Lord and Saviour. Let us do nothing at this great 
hour to obscure the issue in France and Belgium, and in 
the rest of the world. 

g. Our cooperation in this hour should not degenerate 

[130] 



REPORT TO THE BOARD OF MANAGERS 

into merely, or even chiefly, a financial contribution. We 
should give in large sums, and give quickly to relieve 
physical suffering and to help rebuild homes, churches, 
and industries, and to preach the consoling gospel, but 
we have a spiritual offering of prayer and rich brother- 
hood for our allies in a land from which we have received 
so much. 

Nothing in the principles of procedure as suggested 
above lessens the importance of the development of a 
strong Baptist regiment in France and Belgium. Indeed 
the Baptist forces in these countries must be strengthened 
if they are to make their proper contribution in coopera- 
tion with other evangelicals. The American army co- 
operated with other armies in France, and it could never 
have won the notable victories at Chateau-Thierry, at St. 
Mihiel, and in the Argonne Forest if it had not proceeded 
with a full knowledge of what its allies were doing on the 
right and on the left. But it did not lose its own identity, 
nor did it abandon its own methods. It remained an 
American army with American morale and inspired by 
American traditions, while working in harmony with others 
who were contending for the same righteous principles. 
Baptists have a sector to hold in the great campaign in 
France, and there is no call for the regiment to lose its 
identity. But in my judgment, Baptists in France and 
Belgium will make their best contribution as they cooperate 
with others who hold to and contend for the great funda- 
mentals. The cause that unites us with the true spiritual 
descendants of John Calvin and the Huguenots is greater 
than the differences that separate us. And while remaining 
loyal to our convictions we can cooperate with those who 
stand for freedom of conscience, the Lordship of Jesus, 
and the open Bible. In this connection I recall the words 
of one of the well-known Baptists in England, whom I 
heard two weeks ago, " I believe in denominationalism 
because I believe in the church-universal." 

[ 131 ] 



XIV 
Suggestions for Early Consideration 

I. Contributions should be made immediately to 
assist the evangelical churches in France in the con- 
duct of their work, including the support of pastors 
whose income has been greatly reduced. 

II. Contributions should be forwarded through 
the Societies to the proper committees in France for 
the relief of war orphans. With the prevailing 
high prices, the mothers should be given perhaps 
$io per month in addition to what the Govern- 
ment will do for each child that is wholly depen- 
dent. Small amounts will suffice in many cases. 
The committees will award help in such measure as 
may be required in each individual case. 

III. Foyers should be erected in the destroyed 
cities which are now being rebuilt, to offer shelter, 
light, and heat, and food and clothing where re- 
quired, to returning refugees without regard to 
creed or class. Foyers should be established where 
it is expected that evangelical churches will be. re- 
organized, and the social service now should help 
to open doors for large evangelistic effort in the 
future. 

IV. Provision should be made for temporary 

[132] 



SUGGESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION 

chapels in the devastated areas. Where huts or 
foyers are established such buildings could be used 
temporarily as places of worship. The people need 
the consolation of the gospel. 

V. Preparation should be made to assist the 
churches in the future, as may be required, in the 
reconstruction of permanent houses of worship, the 
creation of a wider Christian literature, the support 
of evangelistic campaigns, and the establishment of 
one or more colleges under Christian auspices. 

Steps Already Taken 

The American Baptist Foreign Mission Society 
has already begun to help meet all the more imme- 
diately urgent needs as outlined above and is hoping 
to assist in meeting those that must receive future 
consideration. Appropriations are being made to 
aid the churches, gifts for the support of orphans 
are being solicited, and a well-qualified French Bap- 
tist, a citizen of the United States, Rev. Oliva 
Brouillette, has been released by the French Bap- 
tist Church at Salem, Mass., and has sailed for 
France to represent the Society in the establish- 
ment of foyer work. Mr. Brouillette, who will be 
known as Director of Foyer Work, spent six 
months during the war in Y. M, C. A. work with 
the French soldiers. He is believed to be admirably 
fitted for the responsible task which he will under- 
take for us in the devastated regions of northern 

[ 133 ] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

France, in cooperation with the French Baptists, 
where he is to give general direction to rehef work 
in several centers for people of all classes who 
need a helping hand. The Woman's American Bap- 
tist Foreign Mission Society has under advisement 
plans for lending assistance. Already arrangements 
are being made by that Society to send supplies of 
clothing for distribution in the devastated regions in 
connection with the foyer work. 

The Work of the Union Protestant Committee 

Already our Society has been asked to contribute 
one-tenth of the $3,000,000 which it is proposed to 
raise in America for distribution by the Union 
Protestant Committee for War Relief in France 
and Belgium, whose headquarters are in Paris. It 
is proposed to distribute the $3,000,000 as follows : 

For church maintenance (current ex- 
penses) $1,200,000.00 

For relief 750,000.00 

For rebuilding of churches 500,000.00 

For educational and association work 300,000.00 
For home missions 250,000.00 

Total $3,000,000.00 

Under present conditions in France it is impos- 
sible to make estimates that can be guaranteed, but 

[134] 



SUGGESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION 

in my judgment the amount requested from Amer- 
ica is not too large. The figure named would prob- 
ably not be excessive as an amount which should 
be given by America in addition to what the French 
churches can raise and to what they will receive 
from England, if nothing more were to be con- 
sidered than relief work and the reparation of 
damages. Facing the enlarged obligations of the 
future, there is additional reason for believing that 
the estimate is none too large. I have arrived at 
this conclusion principally through my study of the 
probable needs of the Baptist churches and their 
future obligations, and an attempt to compare Bap- 
tist needs and responsibilities with others of the 
entire evangelical group, of which our own denom- 
ination is but a small fraction. 

It is my opinion that much freedom should be 
allowed the Union Protestant Committee for War 
Relief in France and Belgium in the distribution of 
the $3,000,000. Without having received any sug- 
gestion from the Committee itself, I have reached 
the conclusion that future developments may make 
it advisable for the Committee to have power to 
make adjustments between the several items within 
the total budget for $3,000,000, reducing at one 
point in order to enlarge expenditures at another, 
should emergencies arise. 

I believe our Board should designate for the use 
of Baptist churches in France and Belgium a por- 
tion of the $300,000 we are requested to contribute. 

[135] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

Much of our contribution through the Union Prot- 
estant Committee could be so designated as to assist 
the Baptists of France and Belgium in the program 
of reconstruction which they hope to carry out. At 
the same time I trust that a very large part of our 
contribution will be sent to the Committee undesig- 
nated. 

Additional Facts 

" The Protestant population of France is now 
estimated at 600,000 among 38,000,000 nominal 
Roman Catholics, of whom only a small portion 
are 'practising.' There are 1,200 Protestant 
churches of all communions, besides missions and 
other small groups, with more than 1,200 pastors. 
The accession of Alsace and Lorraine would add 
about 275,000 to the Protestant population." — 
"French and Belgian Protestantism," page 62. 

In general, the evangelical pastors in France and 
Belgium before the war were in number about as 
follows : 

The Union of Evangelical Reformed 

Churches of France 413 

National Union of Reformed Churches 201 

Lutheran Evangelical Churches 80 

Union of Methodist Churches 30 

Methodist Episcopal Churches of 

France 5 

Baptist Churches 30 

[136] 



SUGGESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION 

Central Evangelical Society 'jd 

Popular Evangelical Mission of 

France (McAll) 30 

Belgian Missionary Church 50 

Union of Evangelical Protestant 

Churches of Belgium 38 



998 



The Paris Evangelical Missionary Society re- 
ported two hundred men and women under appoint- 
ment. Nearly one hundred pastors and theological 
students gave their lives in the war. One hundred 
and thirty-five pastors, six evangelists, and fifty- 
eight theological students received the Croix de 
Gtcerre, with a total of two hundred and ninety-six 
citations for heroic service as soldiers at the front. 
Most of these men were in the trenches or were 
engaged in some other form of actual war service. 
A few were chaplains. One hundred and fifty-six 
sons of evangelical pastors in France gave their 
lives in the war. 

There were one hundred and fourteen evangelical 
churches and a number of mission halls in the in- 
vaded areas of France and Belgium, besides many 
homes of pastors. 



[137] 



XV 

Loyalty to Evangelical Pioneers in France 

My heart has been deeply moved as I have stood 
where the evangelical torch-bearers of other cen- 
turies suffered ; and especially when I have recalled 
that historically we received much light from 
France. Our torches have been burning in a freer 
atmosphere, and by reason of a wealth of natural re- 
sources, as well as of greater liberty, the supply 
of oil for our own torches has been more nearly 
adequate. Shall we not help now to supply oil to 
the torches that at times have seemed to be flicker- 
ing in the close atmosphere of Europe, which has 
been so unfavorable to the existence of evangelical 
light? 

Again and again in France I have felt that it 
would be appropriate to attribute not only to those 
who died in the early years of the great war, but 
to the evangelical pioneers of France as well, the 
sentiment of the stirring lines, replete with pathos 
and with challenge: 

We are the Dead. Short days ago 
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, 
Loved and were loved; and now we lie 
In Flanders fields. 

[138] 



LOYALTY TO PIONEERS 



Take up our quarrel with the foe ! 
To you, from failing hands, we throw 
The torch. Be yours to lift it high ! 
If ye break faith with us who die, 
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow 
In Flanders fields. 

Again and again in France I have felt that evan- 
gelicals of America might adopt the American sol- 
diers' response to the call from Flanders Fields and 
make it their own reply to the spiritual pioneers in 
France : 

Rest ye in peace, ye Flanders dead, 
The fight that ye so bravely led 
We've taken up. And we will keep 
True faith with you who lie asleep. 
With each a cross to mark his bed. 
And poppies blowing overhead, 
Where once his own life-blood ran red, 
So let your rest be sweet and deep 
In Flanders fields. 

Fear not that ye have died for naught 
The torch ye threw to us we caught. 
Ten million hands will hold it high. 
And Freedom's light shall never die! 
We've learned the lesson that ye taught 
In Flanders fields. 

A hundred times while I was in France I recalled 
that America's heart was thrilled when it was an- 
nounced that General Pershing, at the tomb of the 
great French soldier, had said, " Lafayette, we are 
here." If Pershing was warranted in addressing 

[ 139] 



IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM 

the spirit of Lafayette, we have equal reason for go- 
ing in our strength to France, and in gratitude for 
such evangehcals as Joan of Arc, John Calvin, and 
the Huguenots, saying, 

" WE ARE HERE ! " 



I MO I 



R n MQ 



